Compiled from diary entries for her son Billy (from Mad About the Boy), this novel sees Bridget now in her mid-30s – and still single and working in TV production. After bumping into Mark (still as awkward as ever) at a christening and Daniel (still as self-centred as ever but now an aspiring author) at an awards night, Bridget later finds out she's pregnant but isn't sure which one is the father. Cue all the old rivalry between the two men. Having always been a Bridget fan, this was a disappointing read. The story was rushed, the characterisation was shallow and it doesn’t even come close to the charm of the movie, where the role of Daniel falls to a new character called Jack. In fact, if this was your first time with Bridget and Mark, you'd be wondering how they ever became such a beloved institution.
To coincide with the new movie Bridget Jones's Baby, Helen Fielding is releasing a new novel, Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries. The summary says: "8.45 P.M. Realise there have been so many times in my life when have fantasised about going to a scan with Mark or Daniel: just not both at the same time.
Before motherhood, before marriage, Bridget, with biological clock ticking very, very loudly, finds herself unexpectedly pregnant at the eleventh hour: a joyful pregnancy which is dominated, however, by a crucial but terribly awkward question - who is the father? Mark Darcy: honourable, decent, notable human rights lawyer? Or Daniel Cleaver: charming, witty, notable fuckwit?
9.45 P.M. It's like they're two halves of the perfect man, who'll spend the rest of their lives each wanting to outdo the other one. And now it's all enacting itself in my stomach.
In this gloriously funny, touching story of baby-deadline panic, maternal bliss, and social, professional, technological, culinary and childbirth chaos, Bridget Jones - global phenomenon and the world's favourite singleton - is back with a bump." Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries is out in October 2016.