The Origins of Bridget Jones: Everything to Know About the Rom-Com Book Series
Before Bridget Jones was charming us onscreen, she was entertaining millions on the page.
When you think of “singletons” and “smug-marrieds,” “blue soup” and enormous underwear, only one name comes to mind: Bridget Jones. When it comes to the pressures women face in love and career, no one makes us laugh quite like Bridget, and now she’s back — just in time for Valentine’s Day. In Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Academy Award winner Renée Zellweger returns as an older and, dare we say, wiser “singleton” who is figuring out dating etiquette as a 50-something widow.
But before Zellweger was charming us onscreen in 2001's Bridget Jones's Diary, the character had to make her way off the page.
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It all started with the 1996 book Bridget Jones’s Diary by author Helen Fielding. Building on her popular newspaper column in The Independent, Fielding cleverly (and very loosely) reimagined the plot of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with a modern-day twist. Her creation struck a chord, inspiring a series of novels that went on to be published in 40 countries and sold 15 million copies.
Here's everything to know about the Bridget Jones books and their author.
How many Bridget Jones books are there?
The Bridget Jones series has four novels, kicking off with the 1996 best-seller Bridget Jones’s Diary.
With self-deprecating humor, our heroine takes to her diary to chronicle life as a 30-something single woman in London. She vows to drink less Chardonnay, get into shape, start a career in television news, and, of course, find love. There are two romantic hopefuls: her charming, womanizing boss Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant in the film), and the handsome but slightly stodgy Mark Darcy (played by Colin Firth on screen), a wealthy, divorced lawyer.
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Spoiler alert: She ends up with “Mr. Right” (Darcy), and the second novel, The Edge of Reason, delves into their bumpy relationship as jealousy and a secret crush bubble to the surface. A stint in a Thai jail over drug smuggling charges adds an extra dose of drama.
In the third novel, Mad About the Boy (2013), we follow Bridget Jones as she navigates the modern dating scene as a widow in her 50s. The fourth novel, Bridget Jones’s Baby (2017), is out of chronological order and circles back to a time in her life before she became a single mother. Fans of the movie series will recognize these titles as matching their book counterparts!
All about Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding
Much like her famous protagonist who works at a London news outlet (the fictional Sit Up Britain), Helen Fielding was a newspaper and TV journalist based in Notting Hill for many years. Often referred to as the “real Bridget Jones,” Fielding admitted the character was quasi-autobiographical in a British Vogue interview.
“Of course, there have to be elements of Bridget in me for me to be able to create her,” she told the outlet in 1998, adding, “I’ll tell you one thing about Bridget. It has made me realise that I am no more neurotic than anyone else.”
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She also co-wrote the screenplays for the movies and penned two novels unrelated to Bridget Jones: her debut, Cause Celeb (1994), and 2004’s Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination.
Is the new movie Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy based on a book?
Yes! In the latest installment, we revisit Bridget nearly 20 years after we first met her, now raising two children while recovering from the shock of her husband Darcy’s sudden death.
Fans follow along as she ventures into the modern dating scene for the first time in decades. When she was last single, there was no sexting, Botox, or online dating, let alone cell phones. We’ll see her juggle motherhood, her career, and other challenges, including falling for a much younger man, Roxster (White Lotus’ Leo Woodall). Daniel Cleaver also returns to the Bridget Jones fold!
The biggest differences between the Bridget Jones books and the movies
The books are told mainly through snarky, humorous diary entries, in which Bridget obsessively logs her weight, “alcohol units” consumed, and the number of times she checks her voicemail to see if her boyfriend called. The diaries are more of a narration tool in the films, with Zellweger’s sarcastic charm totally on point.
In The Edge of Reason, Bridget and Mr. Darcy had a tumultuous relationship, breaking up several times. In the book, Bridget vacationed in Thailand with her friend Shazzer (Sally Phillips) during one of the breakups. In the movie, on the other hand, Bridget Jones goes to Thailand on a work assignment with her old flame, Daniel (ironically, she appears as a relationship expert on a TV show that he’s hosting). Many flirty moments ensue, but Daniel ultimately lets her down again, abandoning her while she’s arrested for drug smuggling.
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The film veers from the book again by offering viewers a happy ending that didn’t exactly materialize on the written page: Mark and Bridget ultimately get engaged, but in the book, the couple didn’t commit so soon.
In Bridget Jones's Baby, Bridget isn’t quite sure who the father of her baby is, and the movie focuses solely on two rival suitors, Mr. Darcy and Jack Qwant (played by Patrick Dempsey), an American dating site billionaire. But Qwant’s character was entirely made up for the movie. In the book, Daniel is the other contender, as he and Bridget have a work fling that comes to an abrupt end when she finds him cheating.
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In the movie, Hugh Grant’s character is MIA, presumed dead in a plane crash because the actor reportedly opted out of the role. Luckily, Daniel survived the near-death experience and Grant is back in Mad About the Boy.
The new movie also brings back movie character Dr. Rawlings (Emma Thompson), Bridget's OBGYN, and Mr. Walliker (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a ruggedly handsome science teacher at the school Bridget’s children attend.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is available to stream on Peacock.
