'Reflecting life as you see it'

 

“I think that when you're writing fiction what you're doing is reflecting life as you see it, and putting down how you think and how other people think, and the sort of confusions that you don't normally like to admit to.” – Helen Fielding

 

Born in England on this date in 1958, Fielding is the novelist and screenwriter who created one of the most successful “characters” of all time – Bridget Jones.  And, Fielding said, it all came about because she was hung up on how to complete a different book on which she was working. 

 

“I was writing an earnest novel about cruises in the Caribbean and I just started writing 'Bridget Jones' to get some money, to finance this earnest work,” she said, “and then I just chucked it out.”

  

Bridget was an outgrowth of Fielding’s newspaper column about single life in London.  That led to Fielding’s novel Bridget Jones's Diary, named by The Guardian of London as one of ten novels that best defined the 20th century. There have now been 4 Bridget books and 4 movies.  The newest movie Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is just out in theaters and getting great reviews.

 

Fielding has earned numerous writing accolades and is listed as one of Britain's 500 Most Influential People.  The BBC’s “Woman’s Hour” included Bridget Jones as one of the 7 women who had most influenced British female culture over the last seven decades – the only one who was not a real person.  In a survey conducted by The Guardian newspaper Bridget Jones's Diary was named as one of the ten novels that best defined the 20th century and in 2024, The New York Times named it one of the 22 funniest novels since Catch 22.  

                   

“If we can't have comedy books written about aspects of womanhood without going into a panic attack about it, then we haven't got very far at being equal,” Fielding said.  “Comedy tends to come out of things which are quite painful and serious.”