Helen Fielding opens up about new Bridget Jones book

Monday, Jun 3, 2013 2:55 AM

NEW YORK – Helen Fielding says the idea of trying to keep the plot of her third Bridget Jones novel a secret “frightens” her.

But Saturday at BookExpo America, the British author appeared at a breakfast before hundreds of booksellers and dropped some hints about what she’s got in store for her comic “singleton” heroine come this fall.

The title – Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy – was inspired by the Dinah Washington version of the Noel Coward song, she said.

The world of Twitter, texting and the Internet play a role – can we assume Bridget’s diary now appears on Facebook? – and Fielding hinted that Bridget’s biological clock is ticking.

The ever-insecure Bridget, she suggested, will be dealing with the pressures women face to look like stars “on the red carpet,” or the “gap” between how we’re told we should be and “how we are inside.”

Fielding, 55, told the crowd the new Bridget is a “fun” book, adding, “ I’m not trying to write social commentary.”

But comedy, she said, “always comes from a place of truth.”

Afterwards, asked by USA TODAY if movie plans are in the works, Fielding confided it’s a bit early because she hasn’t yet completed the novel (there’s no jacket yet, either). “I do think it would make a good movie,” she said.

Would she like to see Renee Zellweger return in the role? She demurred somewhat (suggesting it’s a bit premature) but said, “Yes, she’s wonderful.”

It’s been 14 years since the last Bridget Jones novel, The Edge of Reason. Bridget first burst on the scene in 1996 in Bridget Jones’s Diary.

Mad About the Boy will be published by Knopf on Oct. 15.