Books and biography of Helen Fielding

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

English writer Helen Fielding is best known as the creator of the fictional character Bridget Jones, a lonely 30-year-old woman from London trying to make sense of life and love. Published in 1996, Bridget Jones's Diary has been published in 40 countries around the world. In a poll by The Guardian, the novel was named one of the top ten books of the 20th century.

About the author

Helen Fielding was born on February 19, 1958 in Morley, West Yorkshire, England. Attended Wakefield Girls' High School before studying English at St Ann's College, University of Oxford.

At Oxford, Helen was a good and conscientious student. After graduation, she went to work for the BBC and contributed to programs such as Nationwide and Playschool. She worked as a researcher for a news magazine. But she dreamed not about it. In 1985, Helen goes to refugee camps in Sudan, from where she reports and shoots documentaries.movies.

Five years later, Helen Fielding is a journalist and columnist for the Telegraph, Sunday Times, Independent. Four years later, the first book "The Reason for Success" was published, which received many positive reviews. And Helen starts working on her second novel.

Success Diary

Working for the Independent, Helen writes her own column describing the lifestyle of an unmarried we althy woman who enjoys her own life, hangs out in pubs, meets friends. And Helen Fielding writes a book based on it, which comes out in 1996. In the first days it is swept off the shelves. Soon "Bridget Jones's Diary" becomes a bestseller and holds this position for six months.

Inspired by success, the writer is working on a sequel to the book. In 1999, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason was published. At the same time, Helen meets K. Curran, the author of The Simpsons, and they begin a relationship. Torn between London, where she lived, and Los Angeles, Helen begins to work on scripts for the film adaptation. In 2003, Helen Fielding's novel Vivid Imagination was published.

In 2004, a son, Dashel, was born in Helen's family, and in 2006, a daughter, Romy. In 2009, Helen and Kevin broke up. Six years later, the writer announced that she was working on the next book about Bridget. In the very first days, Bridget Jones's Crazy Boy, published in 2013, breaks all sales records. At the end of 2016, the fourth book in this series, Bridget Jones's Baby, was released.

Books by Helen Fielding

Her first book, The Reason for Success, was published in 1994. The novel is based on real events that Helen had to face in Sudan, Ethiopia and Mozambique. Although the novel came out two years before Bridget's Diary, it went largely unnoticed. The book is good and at the same time difficult. The author touches on global issues: thousands of refugees, sick and dying, lack of food and medicine. It would seem that against the background of the events described, the heroine with her problems looks out of place.

When Rosie Richardson became disillusioned with her boyfriend, she went to volunteer in Africa. Rosie ended up in a refugee camp, where thousands of new ones are expected to arrive soon. After several unsuccessful attempts to help her charges, she decides to involve celebrities in a fundraising campaign and organizes a trip to the camp for European stars. As a result, what began as a "charity game" becomes for Rosie the meaning of life. The motives of people who drop everything and leave to help others can be different. But the main thing is what each of them comes to, what they endure for themselves, what they are left with.

Olivia, the protagonist of the next book (Fiery Imagination), is a journalist and wants to write serious stories. But for some reason no one takes it seriously. And how can you take seriously a girl who carries with her "Robinson's suitcase", which contains everything that can be useful on a desert island? Fearless Olivia Joles conducts her own investigation and, of course, constantly gets into all sorts of stories.

Diary of a Single Woman

The author of Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding, introduces the reader to a lonely 30-year-old Londoner who keeps a diary. He records his life in it: the number of cigarettes smoked and alcohol consumed, attempts to lose weight and get ready for work. She is constantly asked when she will get married. After unsuccessful attempts to meet the one and only, after meetings with friends, after several liters of Chardonnay, Bridget finds happiness in his arms.

Who doesn't dwell on their flaws or share life with their girlfriends? Not crying with them, smearing tears, and not giving a lot of advice? Promises to start a new life and constantly postpones until tomorrow? In the continuation of the adventures of the optimist Bridget "On the verge of madness", every girl will be able to recognize herself, and men will gain valuable information about the mysteries of the female soul.

The action of the third novel takes place fifteen years after the events that conclude the second book, in which the heroine fell in love with lawyer Mark Darcy. Her diary has not changed much since then - the number of cigarettes and portions of alcohol, calories and kilograms still occupy an important place in it. In the third novel, Crazy About a Boy, the heroine became a widow, masters Twitter and falls in love with a twenty-nine-year-old handsome man. No wonder, the same optimistic Bridget, who is already fifty-one, pretends to be thirty-five.

Following the script

The fourth novel, Bridget Jones's Baby, begins with Bridget's letter to her child, in which she tells the circumstances under which he was born. It just so happened that at the christening with friends she met her ex - Mark. A stormy party ended with her sleeping with him. While he ponders whether he wants to return to Bridget, her fate brings Daniel together. She soon finds out that she is expecting a baby. But who is the father? And the mother-to-be begins an investigation.

Chronologically, the events described in the fourth book took place earlier than the third novel. Judging by the fact that the film came out before the publication of the book, Helen Fielding wrote it in the footsteps of the script. Nevertheless, thanks to this novel, the author received the Wodehouse Award, which is awarded for the most ridiculous books. This means that the reader will find in it what he was looking for: sparkling humor and the skill of the storyteller, which is what attracts the novels of Helen Fielding.