Bridget Jones is back in ‘Mad About the Boy’ - The Washington Post Bridget Jones is back in ‘Mad About the Boy’ The inside track on Washington politics. Be the first to know about new stories from PowerPost. Sign up to follow, and we’ll e-mail you free updates as they’re published. You’ll receive free e-mail news updates each time a new story is published. You’re all set! Fans wait for a signed copy of British author Helen Fielding's new novel "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy" at Foyles bookshop in London. (Luke MacGregor/Reuters) By JILL LAWLESS October 19, 2013 LONDON Readers, there is good news and bad news. Bridget Jones is back. But — brace yourselves — Mark Darcy is dead. Fans have been shaken by the revelation in “ Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, ” the third book in Helen Fielding’s series about the diary-writing singleton. He may be fictional, but the demise of Bridget’s handsome lawyer lover — played on the big screen by a smoldering Colin Firth — was headline news.

“I turned on the news and there was the Syrian crisis, and then ‘Mark Darcy is dead,’” Fielding said, amazed. “It’s quite extraordinary for a fictional character to be treated as if they’re alive. I sort of think, hats off to Colin, because really he inhabited that character.” British author Helen Fielding poses with a copy of her book 'Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy' at a book signing in central London. (Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images) The reaction is a testament to the hold of Fielding’s characters on the popular imagination. In ditsy, indomitable Bridget, she created an archetype. (In Darcy she borrowed one, from the brooding Mr. Darcy of Jane Austen’s “ Pride and Prejudice ”). Bridget, created for a series of 1990s newspaper columns, was a 30-something Londoner looking for love and career fulfillment while enduring the condescension of “smug marrieds” and confessing her many insecurities in her diary: “Alcohol units 7, cigarettes 22, calories 2,145.

Minutes spent inspecting face for wrinkles 230.” In “Mad About the Boy” she is still counting calories and booze, though cigarettes have been replaced by nicotine gum. Bridget is now a 51-year-old widow with two young children, convinced she will never find romance again. Fielding said she had no choice but to kill Darcy so Bridget’s story could move on. “The book I wanted to write was not about domesticity, married life. It was about Bridget struggling with what life throws at you,” Fielding said over lunch at the London gastropub where she likes to write in the daytime. “It was Bridget being single with two children in the age of technology. And rediscovering her sexuality. She was a mother, and she lost it amid the nappies and the busy-ness. I think lots of women go through that.” Breaking the news of Darcy’s demise to Firth, who starred opposite Renée Zellweger in the film adaptations of “ Bridget Jones’s Diary ” and “ Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason ,” was surprisingly tough. “I was really nervous, and I had to make sure that he had someone with him and they were sitting down.

And then I said, ‘Colin, I’ve got something really bad to tell you.’ “And then I suppose I just said, ‘You’re dead,’ which is an odd thing to say to anyone. And we were both upset, but at the same time we were laughing.” “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” published in 1996, turned Fielding from a freelance journalist into one of Britain’s most successful writers. The novel and its 1999 sequel have sold 15 million copies. For years, Fielding resisted writing another installment. She was drawn back into Bridget’s world by a desire to write about the lives of middle-aged women, who often face stereotyping, just as the single Bridget did in the earlier books. “There was the idea of ‘tragic, barren spinster’ because she was unmarried in her 30s,” Fielding said. “It was real then. You were Miss bloody Havisham if you didn’t have a boyfriend at 35. And I think the same is true of the middle-aged woman now. “When I was in my 20s, I couldn’t imagine that life would continue beyond 40, really,” she added.

“I couldn’t imagine there would still be dating and going out and getting drunk with your friends and worrying about calls or texts that hadn’t come, and what to wear.” In “Mad About the Boy,” Bridget’s romantic misadven­­tures are overshadowed by loss and the fear of aging — but a strong comic vein remains. “I think most of the things I write are a mixture of dark and light,” Fielding said. Life is “not all sailing along marvelously, nor is it ‘Oh, we’re in a well of despair.’ People hit tough times, and then their friends get round them and cheer them up and then they keep buggering on.” As in the previous books, Bridget can lean on old friends Jude, Tom and Talitha, as well as disreputable former paramour Daniel Cleaver. She navigates the treacherous world of online dating sites and Twitter, and acquires a 29-year-old boyfriend named Roxster. The book also introduces Mr. Wallaker, a teacher at Bridget’s son’s school with whom she instantly clashes. But wait — is that a spark between them? (Hint: Fielding says her dream casting for a movie adaptation is Daniel Craig).

Bridget has always contained elements of Fielding, who is 55 and, like her character, lives in one of the nicer areas of North London with two young children. She is separated from their father, American comedy writer Kevin Curran. There are glimpses of Bridget in the writer’s quick wit and sense of the absurd — though Fielding exudes a considerably greater sense of control than her hapless heroine. “Mad About the Boy” suffered its own Bridget Jones-style mishap when 40 pages from another book, a memoir by actor David Jason, were inserted into the British edition by mistake. And some of the reviews have been less than glowing: not everyone hails mishap-prone, insecure Bridget as a 21st-century heroine. Guardian newspaper columnist Suzanne Moore wrote a piece headlined “ Why I Hate Bridget Jones ,” condemning the character as “vapid, consumerist and self-obsessed” and the book as anti-feminist. Fielding has heard that argument before.

She said that if women can’t make fun of themselves, “we haven’t got very far at being equal, have we?” “And also, I think that is the way women communicate with each other, often, privately. They talk about their frailties, their mess-ups, their weaknesses, their vulnerabilities, and they are funny about it and they support each other. “I was surprised with the first book, with the women who told me they identified with it — powerful, successful women, saying, ‘Oh yes, I have that problem with tights being all tangled up.’ And it’s not just women, either. (Prime Minister) David Cameron was in the papers not so long ago . . . and he said that he’d get in a situation when he’s got the kids in the back of the car and he gets a head of state on the phone: ‘Will you shut up, I’ve got the Israeli prime minister on the phone!’ — Associated Press Bridget Jones is back in 'Mad About the Boy' Bridget Jones is back in 'Mad About the Boy' JILL LAWLESS Pin it Share In this photo taken Thursday, Oct.

10, 2013, British author Helen Fielding attends a photocall ahead of a signing session for her new book "Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy," at a bookshop in central London. Fans have been shaken by the revelation, leaked ahead of publication of the third book in Fielding's series about the diary-writing singleton, that fictional character Mark Darcy is dead. The demise of Bridget’s handsome lawyer lover - played on the big screen by a smoldering Colin Firth - was headline news. (AP Photo/PA, Dominic Lipinski) UNITED KINGDOM OUT, NO SALES, NO ARCHIVE More LONDON (AP) — Readers, there is good news and bad news. Bridget Jones is back. But — brace yourselves — Mark Darcy is dead. Fans have been shaken by the revelation, leaked ahead of publication of "Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy," the third book in Helen Fielding's series about the diary-writing singleton. He may be fictional, but the demise of Bridget's handsome lawyer lover — played on the big screen by a smoldering Colin Firth — was headline news.

"I turned on the news and there was the Syrian crisis, and then 'Mark Darcy is dead,'" Fielding said, amazed. "It's quite extraordinary for a fictional character to be treated as if they're alive. I sort of think, hats off to Colin, because really he inhabited that character." The reaction is a testament to the hold of Fielding's characters on the popular imagination. In ditsy, indomitable Bridget, she created an archetype. (In Darcy she borrowed one, from the brooding Mr. Darcy of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice"). Bridget, created for a series of 1990s newspaper columns, was a 30-something Londoner looking for love and career fulfillment while enduring the condescension of "smug marrieds" and confessing her many insecurities in her diaries: "Alcohol units 7, cigarettes 22, calories 2,145. Minutes spent inspecting face for wrinkles 230." In "Mad About the Boy" she is still counting calories and booze, though cigarettes have been replaced by nicotine gum.

Bridget is now a 51-year-old widow with two young children, convinced she will never find romance again. Fielding said she had no choice but to kill Darcy so Bridget's story could move on. "The book I wanted to write was not about domesticity, married life. It was about Bridget struggling with what life throws at you," Fielding said over lunch at the London gastropub where she likes to write in the daytime. "It was Bridget being single with two children in the age of technology. And rediscovering her sexuality. She was a mother and she lost it amid the nappies and the busy-ness. I think lots of women go through that." Breaking the news of Darcy's demise to Firth, who starred opposite Renee Zellweger in the film adaptations of "Bridget Jones's Diary" and "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," was surprisingly tough. "I was really nervous, and I had to make sure that he had someone with him and they were sitting down.

And then I said, 'Colin, I've got something really bad to tell you.' "And then I suppose I just said 'You're dead,' which is an odd thing to say to anyone. And we were both upset, but at the same time we were laughing." "Bridget Jones's Diary," published in 1996, turned Fielding from a freelance journalist into one of Britain's most successful writers. The novel and its 1999 sequel have sold 15 million copies. For years, Fielding resisted writing another installment. She was drawn back into Bridget's world by a desire to write about the lives of middle-aged women, who often face stereotyping, just as the single Bridget did in the earlier books. "There was the idea of 'tragic, barren spinster' because she was unmarried in her 30s," Fielding said. "It was real then. You were Miss bloody Havisham if you didn't have a boyfriend at 35. And I think the same is true of the middle-aged woman now. "When I was in my 20s, I couldn't imagine that life would continue beyond 40, really," she added.

"I couldn't imagine there would still be dating and going out and getting drunk with your friends and worrying about calls or texts that hadn't come, and what to wear." In "Mad About the Boy," Bridget's romantic misadventures are overshadowed by loss and the fear of aging — but a strong comic vein remains. "I think most of the things I write are a mixture of dark and light," Fielding said. Life is "not all sailing along marvelously, nor is it 'Oh, we're in a well of despair.' People hit tough times, and then their friends get round them and cheer them up and then they keep buggering on." As in the previous books, Bridget can lean on old friends Jude, Tom and Talitha, as well as disreputable former paramour Daniel Cleaver. She navigates the treacherous world of online dating sites and Twitter, and acquires a 29-year-old boyfriend named Roxster. The book also introduces Mr. Wallaker, a teacher at Bridget's son's school with whom she instantly clashes. But wait — is that a spark between them? (Hint: Fielding says her dream casting for a movie adaptation is Daniel Craig).

Read More Bridget has always contained elements of Fielding, who is 55 and, like her character, lives in one of the nicer areas of North London with two young children. She is separated from their father, American comedy writer Kevin Curran. There are glimpses of Bridget in the writer's quick wit and sense of the absurd — though Fielding exudes a considerably greater sense of control than her hapless heroine. "Mad About the Boy" suffered its own Bridget Jones-style mishap when 40 pages from another book, a memoir by actor David Jason, were inserted into the British edition by mistake. And some of the reviews have been less than glowing: not everyone hails mishap-prone, insecure Bridget as a 21st-century heroine. Guardian newspaper columnist Suzanne Moore wrote a piece headlined "Why I Hate Bridget Jones," condemning the character as "vapid, consumerist and self-obsessed" and the book as anti-feminist. Fielding has heard that argument before.

She said that if women can't make fun of themselves, "we haven't got very far at being equal, have we?" "And also, I think that is the way women communicate with each other, often, privately. They talk about their frailties, their mess-ups, their weaknesses, their vulnerabilities, and they are funny about it and they support each other. "I was surprised with the first book, with the women who told me they identified with it — powerful, successful women, saying 'Oh yes, I have that problem with tights being all tangled up.' And it's not just women, either. (Prime Minister) David Cameron was in the papers not so long ago ... and he said that he'd get in a situation when he's got the kids in the back of the car and he gets a head of state on the phone: 'Will you shut up, I've got the Israeli prime minister on the phone!' "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy" is published in the United States by Knopf on Tuesday.

___ Jill Lawless can be reached at Reblog Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding – review | Books | The Guardian Helen Fielding Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding – review There's the familiar agonising and a new sentimentality as 51-year-old Bridget looks to get back in the dating game Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones in The Edge of Reason. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext Monday 7 October 2013 01.30 EDT First published on Monday 7 October 2013 01.30 EDT Share on Messenger Close It's always a jolt to remember that the first two Bridget Jones books, published way back in the 90s, predated texting, tweeting, Facebook and internet dating: the constant stream of personal updates pinging between our devices in 2013. Her diary-style abbreviations, number-crunching obsessiveness over trivia and jokey combination of self-exposure and self-deprecation have had such an influence on the tone of social media that we all sound like Bridget now.

So it's no surprise that Helen Fielding was tempted to let Bridget loose on what looks like her natural terrain. Think what opportunities modern technology offers for embarrassment: the erroneously forwarded email, the ill-advised drunken text, the disastrous internet date. What's surprising, and cheering, is that rather than freeze-framing her as the eternal thirtysomething, Fielding has allowed Bridget to age in real time, making her 51 (and in need of glasses to operate her smartphone). More shockingly, instead of the dissatisfied divorcee one might have expected, Bridget is now a tragic widow. Mark Darcy has died a typically noble death, leaving her with two small children, Billy and Mabel. These days, as well as counting calories and alcohol units, she's also totting up nits on the comb and bags of grated cheese scoffed from the fridge while making the kids' supper. Having had children late, and been bereaved, she's once again out of step with her friends, just as she was with the "smug marrieds" of her 30s.

Now Jude is on the internet dating not-so-merry go round, Tom is obsessed with boutique hotel bargains on Laterooms.com, and glamorous Talitha is refusing to countenance that 60 might be middle-aged. Time has turned Daniel Cleaver from bad boy into sad case, unable to talk to a woman without inquiring after the colour of her "panties" and only good for a spot of inept babysitting. And Bridget, after five years' mourning, is looking to get back into the dating game. But will the old rules still apply? "Everything has changed since you were single," says Talitha. "There was no texting. There were no emails. People spoke on telephones. Plus, young women are more sexually aggressive now, and men are naturally more lazy. You have to, at the very least, … encourage." After launching herself on Twitter as @JoneseyBJ ("Cannot figure out how to put up photo. Is just empty egg-shaped graphic. Is fine!

Can be photo of self before was conceived") and waiting for the followers to flood in, she hooks a "toyboy", 29-year-old Roxster, whose "ripped" body makes her the envy of her drooping middle-aged friends. Cue many comic tweets and texts, and a surprising number of fart and vomit jokes. There's the familiar agonising, with why-hasn't-he-called replaced by why-hasn't-he-texted, but mostly Roxster is funny, sexy and adoring enough to fulfil any woman's wishes. Which is part of the problem: Bridget has been given such a tragic backstory, and the very grown-up burden of young fatherless children, that there's less traction to be had from dating niggles; and with so much darkness there already, Fielding seems unwilling to write any more in. There's a new sentimentality, even slushiness, to her old subjects of love, sex and loneliness; the familiar jaunty tone is reserved for playground politics and the chaos and cuteness of bringing up children.

But while the anxiety of the urban singleton was a fresh subject for comedy in the 90s, we've been reading this sort of thing for years, in countless slummy-mummy columns and books by Allison Pearson or Gill Hornby (all influenced, of course, by Fielding herself). There's a beautifully judged scene where Bridget is pierced with ridiculous overwhelming love for her children, even as they poo and puke in the grip of illness, but mostly the crushed rice cakes, lost car keys and melon balls for the sports day picnic have been done to death. Also, where Bridget in her 30s was an everywoman figure, here she's a very yummy mummy indeed. Darcy has left her financially secure, with no need to work on anything but her improbable screenplay, an updating of Hedda Gabler set in Queen's Park. It's up to Roxster, part of the impoverished younger generation, to introduce her to the delights of the night bus. It's odd how posh contemporary comic writing about motherhood tends to be, and Mad About the Boy is no exception.

As Bridget floats fragrantly around her son's school concert at a stately home, or wells up at the choir service, all the while having heart-thumping encounters with a masterful teacher, the book starts to seem less like a satire on modern life and more like a good old Jilly Cooper. Helen Fielding, who wrote Bridget Jones's Diary, says she waited before writing the latest book because she 'really cares about Bridget as a character' Published: 10 Oct 2013 Bridget Jones is back in “Mad About the Boy” - Salon.com Monday, Oct 14, 2013 12:45 PM UTC Bridget Jones is back in “Mad About the Boy” But dreamboat lawyer Mark Darcy is dead Topics: Books , Bridget Jones , Fiction , From the Wires , Helen Fielding , Entertainment News , News LONDON (AP) — Readers, there is good news and bad news. Bridget Jones is back. But — brace yourselves — Mark Darcy is dead.

Fans have been shaken by the revelation, leaked ahead of publication of “Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy,” the third book in Helen Fielding’s series about the diary-writing singleton. He may be fictional, but the demise of Bridget’s handsome lawyer lover — played on the big screen by a smoldering Colin Firth — was headline news. “I turned on the news and there was the Syrian crisis, and then ‘Mark Darcy is dead,'” Fielding said, amazed. “It’s quite extraordinary for a fictional character to be treated as if they’re alive. I sort of think, hats off to Colin, because really he inhabited that character.” The reaction is a testament to the hold of Fielding’s characters on the popular imagination. In ditsy, indomitable Bridget, she created an archetype. (In Darcy she borrowed one, from the brooding Mr. Darcy of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”).

Bridget, created for a series of 1990s newspaper columns, was a 30-something Londoner looking for love and career fulfillment while enduring the condescension of “smug marrieds” and confessing her many insecurities in her diaries: “Alcohol units 7, cigarettes 22, calories 2,145. Minutes spent inspecting face for wrinkles 230.” In “Mad About the Boy” she is still counting calories and booze, though cigarettes have been replaced by nicotine gum. Bridget is now a 51-year-old widow with two young children, convinced she will never find romance again. Fielding said she had no choice but to kill Darcy so Bridget’s story could move on. “The book I wanted to write was not about domesticity, married life. It was about Bridget struggling with what life throws at you,” Fielding said over lunch at the London gastropub where she likes to write in the daytime. “It was Bridget being single with two children in the age of technology. And rediscovering her sexuality. She was a mother and she lost it amid the nappies and the busy-ness.

I think lots of women go through that.” Breaking the news of Darcy’s demise to Firth, who starred opposite Renee Zellweger in the film adaptations of “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” was surprisingly tough. “I was really nervous, and I had to make sure that he had someone with him and they were sitting down. And then I said, ‘Colin, I’ve got something really bad to tell you.’ “And then I suppose I just said ‘You’re dead,’ which is an odd thing to say to anyone. And we were both upset, but at the same time we were laughing.” “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” published in 1996, turned Fielding from a freelance journalist into one of Britain’s most successful writers. The novel and its 1999 sequel have sold 15 million copies. For years, Fielding resisted writing another installment. She was drawn back into Bridget’s world by a desire to write about the lives of middle-aged women, who often face stereotyping, just as the single Bridget did in the earlier books.

“There was the idea of ‘tragic, barren spinster’ because she was unmarried in her 30s,” Fielding said. “It was real then. You were Miss bloody Havisham if you didn’t have a boyfriend at 35. And I think the same is true of the middle-aged woman now. “When I was in my 20s, I couldn’t imagine that life would continue beyond 40, really,” she added. “I couldn’t imagine there would still be dating and going out and getting drunk with your friends and worrying about calls or texts that hadn’t come, and what to wear.” In “Mad About the Boy,” Bridget’s romantic misadventures are overshadowed by loss and the fear of aging — but a strong comic vein remains. “I think most of the things I write are a mixture of dark and light,” Fielding said.

Life is “not all sailing along marvelously, nor is it ‘Oh, we’re in a well of despair.’ People hit tough times, and then their friends get round them and cheer them up and then they keep buggering on.” As in the previous books, Bridget can lean on old friends Jude, Tom and Talitha, as well as disreputable former paramour Daniel Cleaver. She navigates the treacherous world of online dating sites and Twitter, and acquires a 29-year-old boyfriend named Roxster. The book also introduces Mr. Wallaker, a teacher at Bridget’s son’s school with whom she instantly clashes. But wait — is that a spark between them? (Hint: Fielding says her dream casting for a movie adaptation is Daniel Craig). Bridget has always contained elements of Fielding, who is 55 and, like her character, lives in one of the nicer areas of North London with two young children. She is separated from their father, American comedy writer Kevin Curran. There are glimpses of Bridget in the writer’s quick wit and sense of the absurd — though Fielding exudes a considerably greater sense of control than her hapless heroine.

“Mad About the Boy” suffered its own Bridget Jones-style mishap when 40 pages from another book, a memoir by actor David Jason, were inserted into the British edition by mistake. And some of the reviews have been less than glowing: not everyone hails mishap-prone, insecure Bridget as a 21st-century heroine. Guardian newspaper columnist Suzanne Moore wrote a piece headlined “Why I Hate Bridget Jones,” condemning the character as “vapid, consumerist and self-obsessed” and the book as anti-feminist. Fielding has heard that argument before. She said that if women can’t make fun of themselves, “we haven’t got very far at being equal, have we?” “And also, I think that is the way women communicate with each other, often, privately. They talk about their frailties, their mess-ups, their weaknesses, their vulnerabilities, and they are funny about it and they support each other. “I was surprised with the first book, with the women who told me they identified with it — powerful, successful women, saying ‘Oh yes, I have that problem with tights being all tangled up.’ And it’s not just women, either.

(Prime Minister) David Cameron was in the papers not so long ago … and he said that he’d get in a situation when he’s got the kids in the back of the car and he gets a head of state on the phone: ‘Will you shut up, I’ve got the Israeli prime minister on the phone!’ “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” is published in the United States by Knopf on Tuesday. ___ Firth laughs off Darcy's demise Email a friend BRIDGET Jones creator Helen Fielding says she told Colin Firth to have someone with him before she revealed the news of his character Mark Darcy's demise. Fans have also been shaken by the revelation, leaked ahead of publication of Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, the third book in Helen Fielding's series about the diary-writing singleton. He may be fictional, but the demise of Bridget's handsome lawyer lover - played on the big screen by a smoldering Colin Firth - was headline news. "I turned on the news and there was the Syrian crisis, and then 'Mark Darcy is dead,'" Fielding said, amazed. "It's quite extraordinary for a fictional character to be treated as if they're alive.

I sort of think, hats off to Colin, because really he inhabited that character." The reaction is a testament to the hold of Fielding's characters on the popular imagination. In ditsy, indomitable Bridget, she created an archetype. (In Darcy she borrowed one, from the brooding Mr Darcy of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice). Bridget, created for a series of 1990s newspaper columns, was a 30-something Londoner looking for love and career fulfillment while enduring the condescension of "smug marrieds" and confessing her many insecurities in her diaries: "Alcohol units 7, cigarettes 22, calories 2145. Minutes spent inspecting face for wrinkles 230." In Mad About the Boy she is still counting calories and booze, though cigarettes have been replaced by nicotine gum. Bridget is now a 51-year-old widow with two young children, convinced she will never find romance again. Fielding said she had no choice but to kill Darcy so Bridget's story could move on. "The book I wanted to write was not about domesticity, married life.

It was about Bridget struggling with what life throws at you," Fielding said over lunch at the London gastropub where she likes to write in the daytime. "It was Bridget being single with two children in the age of technology. And rediscovering her sexuality. She was a mother and she lost it amid the nappies and the busy-ness. I think lots of women go through that." Breaking the news of Darcy's demise to Firth, who starred opposite Renee Zellweger in the film adaptations of Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, was surprisingly tough. "I was really nervous, and I had to make sure that he had someone with him and they were sitting down. And then I said, 'Colin, I've got something really bad to tell you.' "And then I suppose I just said 'You're dead,' which is an odd thing to say to anyone. And we were both upset, but at the same time we were laughing." Bridget Jones's Diary, published in 1996, turned Fielding from a freelance journalist into one of Britain's most successful writers. The novel and its 1999 sequel have sold 15 million copies.

For years, Fielding resisted writing another installment. She was drawn back into Bridget's world by a desire to write about the lives of middle-aged women, who often face stereotyping, just as the single Bridget did in the earlier books. "There was the idea of 'tragic, barren spinster' because she was unmarried in her 30s," Fielding said. "It was real then. You were Miss bloody Havisham if you didn't have a boyfriend at 35. And I think the same is true of the middle-aged woman now. "When I was in my 20s, I couldn't imagine that life would continue beyond 40, really," she added. "I couldn't imagine there would still be dating and going out and getting drunk with your friends and worrying about calls or texts that hadn't come, and what to wear." In Mad About the Boy, Bridget's romantic misadventures are overshadowed by loss and the fear of aging - but a strong comic vein remains. "I think most of the things I write are a mixture of dark and light," Fielding said.

Life is "not all sailing along marvelously, nor is it 'Oh, we're in a well of despair.' People hit tough times, and then their friends get round them and cheer them up and then they keep buggering on." As in the previous books, Bridget can lean on old friends Jude, Tom and Talitha, as well as disreputable former paramour Daniel Cleaver. She navigates the treacherous world of online dating sites and Twitter, and acquires a 29-year-old boyfriend named Roxster. The book also introduces Mr Wallaker, a teacher at Bridget's son's school with whom she instantly clashes. But wait - is that a spark between them? (Hint: Fielding says her dream casting for a movie adaptation is Daniel Craig). Bridget has always contained elements of Fielding, who is 55 and, like her character, lives in one of the nicer areas of North London with two young children. She is separated from their father, American comedy writer Kevin Curran. There are glimpses of Bridget in the writer's quick wit and sense of the absurd - though Fielding exudes a considerably greater sense of control than her hapless heroine.

Mad About the Boy suffered its own Bridget Jones-style mishap when 40 pages from another book, a memoir by actor David Jason, were inserted into the British edition by mistake. And some of the reviews have been less than glowing: not everyone hails mishap-prone, insecure Bridget as a 21st-century heroine. Guardian newspaper columnist Suzanne Moore wrote a piece headlined "Why I Hate Bridget Jones," condemning the character as "vapid, consumerist and self-obsessed" and the book as anti-feminist. Fielding has heard that argument before. She said that if women can't make fun of themselves, "we haven't got very far at being equal, have we?" "And also, I think that is the way women communicate with each other, often, privately. They talk about their frailties, their mess-ups, their weaknesses, their vulnerabilities, and they are funny about it and they support each other. "I was surprised with the first book, with the women who told me they identified with it - powerful, successful women, saying 'Oh yes, I have that problem with tights being all tangled up.' And it's not just women, either.

(Prime Minister) David Cameron was in the papers not so long ago ... and he said that he'd get in a situation when he's got the kids in the back of the car and he gets a head of state on the phone: 'Will you shut up, I've got the Israeli prime minister on the phone!' ‘Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy,’ by Helen Fielding - The Washington Post ‘Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy,’ by Helen Fielding The inside track on Washington politics. Be the first to know about new stories from PowerPost. Sign up to follow, and we’ll e-mail you free updates as they’re published. You’ll receive free e-mail news updates each time a new story is published. You’re all set! By Jen Chaney By Jen Chaney October 9, 2013 Follow @chaneyj When “ Bridget Jones’s Diary ” became a publishing sensation in the late 1990s, times were different for women. “ The End of Men ” had not yet been announced . Working ladies weren’t being encouraged to “ Lean In .” Female-centric blogs such as Jezebel and Feministing didn’t exist.

Imagine if social media had started to blossom before our Bridge was born. Instead of recording her romantic exploits and caloric intake in journal form, she might have posted all of that information online, requiring author Helen Fielding to write a novel entitled “Bridget Jones’s Tumblr.” Now, almost 20 years after that famous diary was first released in Britain and turned into a cross-continental bestseller, here comes Bridget Jones, stumbling into the allegedly more gender-equal world of 2013 just as fixated on losing weight and attracting men as she was back in the era of “Friends.” And she’s still just as capable of causing a media stir, too. “ Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy ” has prompted loads of pre-publication publicity, including an announcement Wednesday that it’s the “Today” show’s new book club pick . “Mad About the Boy” is the third novel to focus on the perpetually unglued British everywoman, and the first to be published after a 14-year absence.

Since the second installment, “ Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason ,” circumstances have changed for the tart-tongued hater of “smug marrieds.” She’s now 51, the mother of two young children and — spoiler alert — a widow. Mark Darcy, the sensible yet sexy love interest inspired by Colin Firth’s role in the BBC’s “ Pride and Prejudice ,” and actually played by Firth in the rom-coms based on the “Bridget” books, has been dead for nearly four years when “Mad About the Boy” begins. Bridget is bereaved and, as always, frazzled. Only now she’s frazzled by semi-new things, like attempting to turn a social media flirtation with a man 20 years her junior into a genuine romance. (Bridget’s fresh-faced paramour goes by Roxster, which is his Twitter handle. His actual name, Roxby McDuff, is, remarkably, even more absurd.) Yes, Bridget Jones is on Twitter , which means she now tracks her followers with the same obsessive insecurity she devotes to her weight and the number of alcohol units she’s consumed. “Twitter followers 1,” she notes.

“Am practically viral.” While parenthood and profound loss may have forced Bridget to grow up in some ways, she hasn’t grown up much. And that’s one of this novel’s key problems. Readers may expect a middle-aged woman who has dealt with such loss to have lowered her narcissism levels a tad. Not Bridget Jones . . . or, pardon me, ­@JonesyBJ. “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” by Helen Fielding (Knopf. 390 pp. $26.95). (Knopf) While Fielding occasionally attempts to demonstrate the character’s more generous side — at one point, she writes a letter to the late Mark, apologizing for “being upset about anything which isn’t about not still having you” — too often she casts the single mom/budding screenwriter as a ­self-involved flake. Is Bridget’s experience supposed to be relatable, as it was in “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” a book that critiqued society’s expectations of women as much as it fell prey to female stereotypes?

Or is her ability to have sleepovers with a hot guy while relying on a nanny to scoot the kids off to school and day care supposed to serve as a form of chick-lit escapism for today’s working moms? It’s never clear. Maybe the problem is less about Bridget’s stunted development and more about the lack of originality in the novel’s approach. After all, we consume plenty of books and movies about men stuck in a state of perpetual immaturity. Women should be allowed to “lean in” to the same behavior, am I right, Sheryl Sandberg ? It’s more frustrating that Fielding, who still demonstrates an occasional capacity to lob wryly funny zingers at her readers, has taken the easy way out in terms of plot. Instead of placing Bridget in an entirely new situation that might have afforded her added depth, the author has turned her into a singleton again. Despite the addition of children, this seems like a Bridget Jones story we’ve already read, two times before, and that, for all its references to tweeting and texting, seems out of touch with the current moment.

If only Fielding had set this novel in the era prior to 2008, when Mark Darcy was alive and the two were trying to start a family together. Those were the years when, presumably, Mrs. Darcy was trying to maintain her singleton cred while simultaneously turning into a smug married. That’s the kind of struggle that could have made Bridget Jones truly relatable again, especially to the now-settled readers who fell in love with her back when they, too, were frenetic 30-somethings. Instead, Helen Fielding has merely beamed in a familiar heroine from the late ’90s. As a result, we have a much-hyped novel that, sadly, is more retro than relevant. Chaney is a film critic and pop culture writer whose work appears regularly in The Post, New York Magazine’s Vulture, the Dissolve and other outlets. BRIDGET JONES Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding: Review | Toronto Star Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding: Review The irrepressible Bridget Jones is back -- as a widow with new dating possibilities Helen Fielding's Mad About the Boy, Knopf Canada, 386 pages, $30.

Helen Fielding (Alisa Connan) By Georgie Binks Tues., Oct. 15, 2013 Tuesday October 1, 11:51. Editor assigns review of Mad about the Boy, third in fabulously popular Bridget Jones series. Love job. Freelancing great. Check fridge for snacks. 11:58 Publisher’s rep asks for guarantee in writing not to reveal plot details online or otherwise until October 15. 12:00. Log off Twitter, Facebook, stop answering phone. Reveal to boyfriend “cone-of-silence” situation. Request he stop me if I say the words Bridg. . . (hand over mouth). October 2. Start book. October 3. Finish book. Number of laughs: 100s, number of times said “Aha, so true”: 2,000, number of times cried: 3, number of Halloween candy bars eaten: 25. With secrecy like this surrounding the plot of Mad about The Boy, Helen Fielding’s latest Bridget Jones novel, I was geared up for something pretty big.

British media revealed part of the plot several weeks ago: Bridget’s dashingly handsome husband Mark Darcy had been killed and Bridget was a single woman again. For those just recovering from the death of another fantasy love interest, a Brit too, (SPOILER ALERT: Downton Abbey), this was a bit much. More frightening, though, was the fact Bridget was back on the dating scene again. We all thought we’d solved that one years ago. I’ve always had a difficult time figuring out Bridget Jones charm to men. Two books worth of ditziness and everyone from her boss to a fabulous lawyer are crazy about her. Whenever my inner geek escapes guys just cringe and look away. Add that to the unreality of her situation now, in which, although widowed and raising two small children alone, she’s left with enough money she doesn’t need to work? She’s also 40 pounds overweight but just goes on a diet and loses it? Hmmmm.

Of course, Bridget is searching for a man again, and on the advice of her friends turns to the Internet (so early 2000s) and meets a younger man, 30-year-old Roxster (again, very 10 years ago). Young men are so “old” these days. We all learned years ago you can undress them, but you can’t take them out, a lesson it takes Bridget awhile to figure out. Miraculously that guy who seems to hate her all the way through the book turns out to be the next knight in shining armour. Hmmmm. Article Continued Below The likelihood of a woman like Bridget meeting two eligible men in one lifetime (make that three counting Darcy) is so unbelievably, well, unbelievable. Allow me to rewrite the plot, Ms. Fielding. Bridget arrives on the dating scene penniless, fighting daily with that 40 pounds, endures five years of internet dating, 450 inquiries of “What are you wearing now?”, 73 offline coffee dates, then swears off men. Fielding’s audience likely has better tales than they’ll find in this book.

As unbelievable and flat plot-wise as it is, the book is still extremely entertaining. I love Helen Fielding’s style, especially her use of British slang, which I don’t understand but it sounds so dang cute. Fielding also captures the essence of Bridget’s two kids, little Mabel with her “lispth” and the lovely Billy, with perfect clarity, as does she with Bridget’s battle with everything from head lice to the plethora of electronic gadgets both kids possess. Some descriptions are priceless. When trying to dress younger, Bridget feels like “a tragic deluded grandmother waddling around in discotheque leggings and a sleeveless top with flappy arms, fuzzy hair, a sticking-out stomach and a lovely tiara.” Her tweets, yes she’s on twitter as JoneseyBJ, are also right on the money — one of the few things that is actually current. With the embargo on the plot coming off, I must report, that while I was able to keep it a secret, I wish I’d had more of a secret to keep. Georgie Binks is a Toronto writer who has just published her first novel, A Crack in the Pavement.

Bridget Jones back in ‘Mad About the Boy’ – The Denver Post Colorado doctor has license suspended; two agree to cease practices LONDON — Readers, there is good news and bad news. Bridget Jones is back. But — brace yourselves — Mark Darcy is dead. Fans have been shaken by the revelation, leaked ahead of publication of “Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy,” the third book in Helen Fielding’s series about the diary-writing singleton. He may be fictional, but the demise of Bridget’s handsome lawyer lover — played on the big screen by a smoldering Colin Firth — was headline news. “I turned on the news and there was the Syrian crisis, and then ‘Mark Darcy is dead,'” Fielding said, amazed. “It’s quite extraordinary for a fictional character to be treated as if they’re alive. I sort of think, hats off to Colin, because really he inhabited that character.” The reaction is a testament to the hold of Fielding’s characters on the popular imagination. In ditsy, indomitable Bridget, she created an archetype. (In Darcy she borrowed one, from the brooding Mr. Darcy of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”).

Bridget, created for a series of 1990s newspaper columns, was a 30-something Londoner looking for love and career fulfillment while enduring the condescension of “smug marrieds” and confessing her many insecurities in her diaries: “Alcohol units 7, cigarettes 22, calories 2,145. Minutes spent inspecting face for wrinkles 230.” In “Mad About the Boy” she is still counting calories and booze, though cigarettes have been replaced by nicotine gum. Bridget is now a 51-year-old widow with two young children, convinced she will never find romance again. Fielding said she had no choice but to kill Darcy so Bridget’s story could move on. “The book I wanted to write was not about domesticity, married life. It was about Bridget struggling with what life throws at you,” Fielding said over lunch at the London gastropub where she likes to write in the daytime. “It was Bridget being single with two children in the age of technology. And rediscovering her sexuality. She was a mother and she lost it amid the nappies and the busy-ness.

I think lots of women go through that.” Breaking the news of Darcy’s demise to Firth, who starred opposite Renee Zellweger in the film adaptations of “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” was surprisingly tough. “I was really nervous, and I had to make sure that he had someone with him and they were sitting down. And then I said, ‘Colin, I’ve got something really bad to tell you.’ “And then I suppose I just said ‘You’re dead,’ which is an odd thing to say to anyone. And we were both upset, but at the same time we were laughing.” “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” published in 1996, turned Fielding from a freelance journalist into one of Britain’s most successful writers. The novel and its 1999 sequel have sold 15 million copies. For years, Fielding resisted writing another installment. She was drawn back into Bridget’s world by a desire to write about the lives of middle-aged women, who often face stereotyping, just as the single Bridget did in the earlier books.

“There was the idea of ‘tragic, barren spinster’ because she was unmarried in her 30s,” Fielding said. “It was real then. You were Miss bloody Havisham if you didn’t have a boyfriend at 35. And I think the same is true of the middle-aged woman now. “When I was in my 20s, I couldn’t imagine that life would continue beyond 40, really,” she added. “I couldn’t imagine there would still be dating and going out and getting drunk with your friends and worrying about calls or texts that hadn’t come, and what to wear.” In “Mad About the Boy,” Bridget’s romantic misadventures are overshadowed by loss and the fear of aging — but a strong comic vein remains. “I think most of the things I write are a mixture of dark and light,” Fielding said.

Life is “not all sailing along marvelously, nor is it ‘Oh, we’re in a well of despair.’ People hit tough times, and then their friends get round them and cheer them up and then they keep buggering on.” As in the previous books, Bridget can lean on old friends Jude, Tom and Talitha, as well as disreputable former paramour Daniel Cleaver. She navigates the treacherous world of online dating sites and Twitter, and acquires a 29-year-old boyfriend named Roxster. The book also introduces Mr. Wallaker, a teacher at Bridget’s son’s school with whom she instantly clashes. But wait — is that a spark between them? (Hint: Fielding says her dream casting for a movie adaptation is Daniel Craig). Bridget has always contained elements of Fielding, who is 55 and, like her character, lives in one of the nicer areas of North London with two young children. She is separated from their father, American comedy writer Kevin Curran. There are glimpses of Bridget in the writer’s quick wit and sense of the absurd — though Fielding exudes a considerably greater sense of control than her hapless heroine.

“Mad About the Boy” suffered its own Bridget Jones-style mishap when 40 pages from another book, a memoir by actor David Jason, were inserted into the British edition by mistake. And some of the reviews have been less than glowing: not everyone hails mishap-prone, insecure Bridget as a 21st-century heroine. Guardian newspaper columnist Suzanne Moore wrote a piece headlined “Why I Hate Bridget Jones,” condemning the character as “vapid, consumerist and self-obsessed” and the book as anti-feminist. Fielding has heard that argument before. She said that if women can’t make fun of themselves, “we haven’t got very far at being equal, have we?” “And also, I think that is the way women communicate with each other, often, privately. They talk about their frailties, their mess-ups, their weaknesses, their vulnerabilities, and they are funny about it and they support each other. “I was surprised with the first book, with the women who told me they identified with it — powerful, successful women, saying ‘Oh yes, I have that problem with tights being all tangled up.’ And it’s not just women, either.

(Prime Minister) David Cameron was in the papers not so long ago … and he said that he’d get in a situation when he’s got the kids in the back of the car and he gets a head of state on the phone: ‘Will you shut up, I’ve got the Israeli prime minister on the phone!’ “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” is published in the United States by Knopf on Tuesday. December 23, 2016, 6:57 am The party is over at Purple 33 and many other underground music and art spaces. New Year’s Eve 2016: The best parties, restaurants and shows to ring in 2017 in Denver December 23, 2016, 5:37 am Fancy galas, rowdy concerts, drop-perfect cocktail soirées — Denver has more New Year’s Eve debauchery (not to mention good, clean kid-friendly fun) cooked up this year than a houseboat full of unsupervised teenagers.

Movie review: Denzel Washington is ferocious in “Fences” December 23, 2016, 12:01 am Denzel Washington delivers a leonine, devouringly powerful performance as one of American theater’s most imposing patriarchs in “Fences,” a classic of contemporary dramatic literature that has finally received a respectful, often stirring, adaptation for the screen. “Why Him?” movie review: Bryan Cranston’s too good for these old comedy tropes December 23, 2016, 12:01 am Christmas is one of the busiest moviegoing days of the year, and not just because many families need a two-hour break from each other. Some of the year’s best, most exciting films come out around the holidays. “Why Him?” is not among them. 'Bridget Jones' Book 3, 'Mad About the Boy,' Spoilers: Mark Darcy Dies & Jones' Romance With Younger Guy [VIDEO] : Movies : Enstarz‎ Renee Zellweger played Bridget Jones in the two movies based on Helen Fielding's series.

(Photo : Reuters) Advertisement Mark Darcy dies in Helen Fielding's third Bridget Jones book, Mad About the Boy, according to The Sunday Times . Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason came out more than a decade ago and concluded with Darcy proposing to Jones, who was ecstatic and looking forward to marital bliss. The new book reveals that the two did in fact get married and had two children, but Fielding kills Darcy off in the beginning of the book. Jones will be a 51-year-old single mother in the book and while she takes care of the kids and obsesses over her weight, wrinkles, and Twitter followers, she will be starting a romance with a new guy who is only 29 years old. Fans of the series have been left pretty shocked by the news of Darcy's death. The book begins much in the same way like the previous ones did: with a diary entry format featuring "3,482 calories (mostly leftovers)" and "texts from toy boy: 0." Jones is now known as Mrs. Darcy and has two children, Mabel and Billy.

She tells people she is 35 and is "working on a debut film script; a modern-day update of a Chekov classic, set in Queen's Park." Her ex-boyfriend Daniel Cleaver, who was played by Hugh Grant in the film adaptations, is mentioned as the "naughty godfather" to her children, who "can be relied upon for babysitting duties and inappropriate sexual advances towards their mother." In the film adaptations, Renee Zellweger played Jones' character and Colin Firth portrayed Darcy. Fielding's first book, Bridget Jones's Diary, was published in 1996 and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason was released in 1999. Watch a clip from Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason: Privacy policy | More Newsletters AP This book cover image released by Knopf shows "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy," by Helen Fielding. The book is scheduled for release on Oct. 15. (AP Photo/Knopf) Readers, there is good news and bad news. Bridget Jones is back. But — brace yourselves — Mark Darcy is dead.

Fans have been shaken by the revelation, leaked ahead of publication of "Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy," the third book in Helen Fielding's series about the diary-writing singleton. He may be fictional, but the demise of Bridget's handsome lawyer lover — played on the big screen by a smoldering Colin Firth — was headline news. Celeb Hookups: Margot Robbie Ties the Knot Evan Agostini/Invision/AP "I turned on the news and there was the Syrian crisis, and then 'Mark Darcy is dead,'" Fielding said, amazed. "It's quite extraordinary for a fictional character to be treated as if they're alive. I sort of think, hats off to Colin, because really he inhabited that character." Celeb Breakups: Tarek and Christina El Moussa Getty Images for Lakewood Center The reaction is a testament to the hold of Fielding's characters on the popular imagination. In ditsy, indomitable Bridget, she created an archetype. (In Darcy she borrowed one, from the brooding Mr. Darcy of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice").

Bridget, created for a series of 1990s newspaper columns, was a 30-something Londoner looking for love and career fulfillment while enduring the condescension of "smug marrieds" and confessing her many insecurities in her diaries: "Alcohol units 7, cigarettes 22, calories 2,145. Minutes spent inspecting face for wrinkles 230." In "Mad About the Boy" she is still counting calories and booze, though cigarettes have been replaced by nicotine gum. Bridget is now a 51-year-old widow with two young children, convinced she will never find romance again. Fielding said she had no choice but to kill Darcy so Bridget's story could move on. "The book I wanted to write was not about domesticity, married life. It was about Bridget struggling with what life throws at you," Fielding said over lunch at the London gastropub where she likes to write in the daytime. "It was Bridget being single with two children in the age of technology. And rediscovering her sexuality. She was a mother and she lost it amid the nappies and the busy-ness.

I think lots of women go through that." Breaking the news of Darcy's demise to Firth, who starred opposite Renee Zellweger in the film adaptations of "Bridget Jones's Diary" and "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," was surprisingly tough. "I was really nervous, and I had to make sure that he had someone with him and they were sitting down. And then I said, 'Colin, I've got something really bad to tell you.' "And then I suppose I just said 'You're dead,' which is an odd thing to say to anyone. And we were both upset, but at the same time we were laughing." "Bridget Jones's Diary," published in 1996, turned Fielding from a freelance journalist into one of Britain's most successful writers. The novel and its 1999 sequel have sold 15 million copies. For years, Fielding resisted writing another installment. She was drawn back into Bridget's world by a desire to write about the lives of middle-aged women, who often face stereotyping, just as the single Bridget did in the earlier books.

"There was the idea of 'tragic, barren spinster' because she was unmarried in her 30s," Fielding said. "It was real then. You were Miss bloody Havisham if you didn't have a boyfriend at 35. And I think the same is true of the middle-aged woman now. "When I was in my 20s, I couldn't imagine that life would continue beyond 40, really," she added. "I couldn't imagine there would still be dating and going out and getting drunk with your friends and worrying about calls or texts that hadn't come, and what to wear." In "Mad About the Boy," Bridget's romantic misadventures are overshadowed by loss and the fear of aging — but a strong comic vein remains. "I think most of the things I write are a mixture of dark and light," Fielding said.

Life is "not all sailing along marvelously, nor is it 'Oh, we're in a well of despair.' People hit tough times, and then their friends get round them and cheer them up and then they keep buggering on." As in the previous books, Bridget can lean on old friends Jude, Tom and Talitha, as well as disreputable former paramour Daniel Cleaver. She navigates the treacherous world of online dating sites and Twitter, and acquires a 29-year-old boyfriend named Roxster. The book also introduces Mr. Wallaker, a teacher at Bridget's son's school with whom she instantly clashes. But wait — is that a spark between them? (Hint: Fielding says her dream casting for a movie adaptation is Daniel Craig). Bridget has always contained elements of Fielding, who is 55 and, like her character, lives in one of the nicer areas of North London with two young children. She is separated from their father, American comedy writer Kevin Curran. There are glimpses of Bridget in the writer's quick wit and sense of the absurd — though Fielding exudes a considerably greater sense of control than her hapless heroine.

"Mad About the Boy" suffered its own Bridget Jones-style mishap when 40 pages from another book, a memoir by actor David Jason, were inserted into the British edition by mistake. And some of the reviews have been less than glowing: not everyone hails mishap-prone, insecure Bridget as a 21st-century heroine. Guardian newspaper columnist Suzanne Moore wrote a piece headlined "Why I Hate Bridget Jones," condemning the character as "vapid, consumerist and self-obsessed" and the book as anti-feminist. Fielding has heard that argument before. She said that if women can't make fun of themselves, "we haven't got very far at being equal, have we?" "And also, I think that is the way women communicate with each other, often, privately. They talk about their frailties, their mess-ups, their weaknesses, their vulnerabilities, and they are funny about it and they support each other. "I was surprised with the first book, with the women who told me they identified with it — powerful, successful women, saying 'Oh yes, I have that problem with tights being all tangled up.' And it's not just women, either.

(Prime Minister) David Cameron was in the papers not so long ago ... and he said that he'd get in a situation when he's got the kids in the back of the car and he gets a head of state on the phone: 'Will you shut up, I've got the Israeli prime minister on the phone!' "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy" is published in the United States by Knopf on Tuesday. Published at 12:09 PM EDT on Oct 14, 2013 | Updated at 12:12 PM EDT on Oct 14, 2013 Copyright Associated Press

Question: Published in 2013 Mad About the Boy is the third book about which character who is then 51 and a widow with two children?
Answer: Bridget Jones