Mad About The Boy: Title of new Bridget Jones novel by Helen Fielding revealed

When asked which boy Bridget was mad about, Fielding merely raised one eyebrow enigmatically

It's been a v.v long time but Bridget Jones is coming back and she’s still mad about boys. At least, that’s according to the title of Helen Fielding’s new novel, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, revealed this afternoon.

Fielding’s first book, Bridget Jones’ Diary, became an international bestseller in 1996 and spawned follow-up, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason three years later. The books collectively sold 15 million copies and inspired two Hollywood films starring Renée Zellweger.

The story behind the third novel featuring the erstwhile thirty-something-looking-for-love is being kept closely under wraps. When asked which boy Bridget was mad about, Fielding merely raised one eyebrow enigmatically, but did say: “Bridget’s life has moved on.”

Publisher Jonathan Cape has revealed, however, that Bridget is older, she is still keeping a diary and that the haphazard character is now “immersed in texting and experimenting with social media, with an emphasis on ‘social’!” as she navigates the perils of internet dating.

Speaking of the 14-year gap between the last Bridget Jones novel she published Fielding, 54, said:“I sort of lost my voice with Bridget for a long time after the unexpected success when it first came out. It was very easy to write and be honest, then I got all self-conscious.”

She told Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour in December: “I found last Spring I had new stuff I wanted to say. Things that didn’t exist when I last wrote, like emails and texting. The way life is lived through Twitter. And a whole new idea for a phase of her life that I can’t jinx by describing it.”

Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy, Bridget’s perennial suitors played by Hugh Grant and Colin Firth in the movies, will be a “presence” in the new books, Fielding has confirmed.

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy will be published on 10 October 2013.

Fielding revived Bridget for a series of columns in The Independent seven years ago. The story which concluded with her having a baby boy by Cleaver, and inspired a third film with Zellweger which is due to be shot this year.

Working Title Films confirmed work on the movie, called Bridget Jones’ Baby, is in development, but Tim Bevan, co-chairman of Working Title Films told the BBC: “Bridget Jones's Baby is like herding cats but they're beginning to fall into line.”

Extract from Mad about The Boy:

Wednesday 24 October 2012

11.27 p.m. Just presss d SEND. Iss fineisn’t it?

You see, this is the trouble with the modern world. If it was the days of letter-writing, I would never even have started to find his address, a pen, a piece of paper, an envelope, a stamp, and gone outside at 11.30p.m. to find a postbox. A text is gone at the brush of a fingertip, like a nuclear bomb or exocet missile.

DATING RULE NO:1

DO NOT TEXT WHEN DRUNK