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Webchat with Helen Fielding - RESCHEDULED! Come and chat to Bridget Jones author TOMORROW, (Weds 14 December), 9-10pm

158 replies

SorchaMumsnet · 24/10/2016 10:39

Calling all Bridget Jones fans! We’re giving you the chance to put your questions to Helen Fielding who is joining us for a webchat on Thursday 27 October between 9 and 10pm.
Bridget Jones’s Baby: The Diaries is the latest installment charting the life of this literary phenomenon. Everyone who joins the webchat will be entered into a draw to win one of two SIGNED copies of Bridget Jones’s Baby: The Diaries.

Helen is one of the country’s greatest comic writers. Bridget Jones’s Baby is her sixth book and she is part of the screenwriting team on the three films. We're really honoured that she's agreed to give us her time on Thursday from her home in Los Angeles, so please do come along and join the chat. If you’re unable to make that time, feel free to post up a question in advance to this thread.

please note the webchat has been postponed. We're hoping it will take place next Wednesday (3 November) between 9 and 10pm. We have posted up a statement from Helen's team in the thread below.

Webchat with Helen Fielding - RESCHEDULED! Come and chat to Bridget Jones author TOMORROW, (Weds 14 December), 9-10pm
Webchat with Helen Fielding - RESCHEDULED! Come and chat to Bridget Jones author TOMORROW, (Weds 14 December), 9-10pm
OP posts:
user1478706331 · 13/12/2016 12:32

My question - will you please come for some wine with me, along with Shazza. A bar near London Bridge, naturally. We will have fun, wake up feeling gross, and be excellent friends for ever more.

SouthWestmom · 13/12/2016 15:47

Same question as last time (and I'm so sorry you had a sad reason for cancelling) - snog, marry, avoid? Darcy, Jack, Daniel?

KimmySchmidtsSmile · 13/12/2016 16:47

Ooh. Looking forward to it. Thanks for doing this Helen. WineChocolateCakeWine

burwellmum · 13/12/2016 16:48

I am afraid that I am going to echo several other contributors - why did you kill off Mark Darcy and do you regret it as much as we seem to?

KimmySchmidtsSmile · 13/12/2016 16:58

Well, I'm going to go the other way...why didn't she end up with Daniel?

tooneedyme · 13/12/2016 21:22

I have a friend who works in tv and cannot watch anything he is involved in as it makes him cringe, I suppose it's a bit like hearing yourself recorded or in a homemade video. Do you enjoy the movies or is it a cringe moment for you? I am a major Bridget fan and my entire 2016 was spent counting down to the release of Bridget Jones Baby!

bonnieweelass · 13/12/2016 21:35

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

TyneTeas · 13/12/2016 23:38

Hi

Hope a non-Bridget Q is okay.

Have you ever considered a follow-up to Cause Celeb

MermaidofZennor · 14/12/2016 08:10

Won't be able to make it for the web chat, so just wanted to offer my condolences and also wanted to say how much I've loved Bridget over the years. Reading about her adventures as she has got older (roughly at the same age as me) have been a delight. And I thoroughly enjoyed Mad About the Boy :) Always good to be reminded that romance and love is not just for the young and perfect of body :o

KimmySchmidtsSmile · 14/12/2016 11:53

I also loved MATB, read it not understanding why there was the backlash (I mean I get it in terms of people being invested in Mark's character but I loved the Mr Wallaker character. Roxter...couldn't get past the name Wink). Bridget though was still Bridget and it was a lovely read over Xmas when I got it.

worriedbigsis · 14/12/2016 15:11

Helen, very sorry for your loss. And huge thanks for creating Bridget - she made me laugh so hard and resonated so strongly as a young single woman in London. I remember searching for and re-reading all your original columns at one point and still recall and am influenced by your turn of phrase today. The Daniel / Bridget skirt early email skit in book 1 is still hilarious and so of it's time (and Oh DANIEL).

Like TyneTeas, I wanted to mention Cause Celeb, say I also loved it and found it every bit as funny and possibly more influential. Do you have plans for any new novels with new characters? (Please say yes. And thanks again).

Jaquelinedjt · 14/12/2016 18:51

Hi Helen - first of all: Love you since I was 15 and I became a Jane Austen's fan because of you. So THANK YOU!!!

Now, my question:
I know you are a big Jane Austen's fan as well and that "Pride and Prejudice" and "Persuasion" (at least) inspired you to write about our hero Bridget Jones. So if you could travel through the time, meet Miss Austen and say or ask her something, what would it be?

Please let us know
Lot of hugs and kisses from Brazil

Xxx Jaqueline

littleducks · 14/12/2016 19:01

I'm so sorry for your loss and hope that your children are coping as well as they can in the circumstances.

I loved and hated MATB. I cried and cried (the descriptions of her missing Mark) and laughed too. It was an emotional roller coaster of a novel. I refuse to watch the film as it seemed wrong that they departed from the book. The advertisingredients seemed to insinuate (or maybe Saudi I can't recall) that Bridgethe was unsure of who the father of her baby was and that didn't seem like BJ to me.

My question is.... were you surprised at the strength of the public reaction to readers discovering you had killed off Mr Darcy?

littleducks · 14/12/2016 19:02

Apologies silly auto corrects

The advertising seemed to insinuate (or maybe said I can't recall) that Bridget was unsure of who the father of her baby was and that didn't seem like BJ to me.

MNHQ
RachelMumsnet · 14/12/2016 20:25

Are you Bridget Jones?

HelenFielding · 14/12/2016 20:28

@RachelMumsnet

Are you Bridget Jones?

Um, I always used to deny that I was like Bridget, but I've just made such a mess of trying to login to the chat web that I think I might be more chaotic than Bridget. I've very excited about the chat and, crucially, mastering the technology before 1pm!.

KimmySchmidtsSmile · 14/12/2016 20:40

You're early! Wink Wine?!

KimmySchmidtsSmile · 14/12/2016 20:42

as in do you want a virtual glass not^ are you drunk already. vgd.

HelenFielding · 14/12/2016 20:47

@KimmySchmidtsSmile

as in do you want a virtual glass not^ are you drunk already. vgd.

Yes please. We should all have a virtual glass ready. Wine Chocolate

KimmySchmidtsSmile · 14/12/2016 20:54

Prost! GlühWine You appear to have mastered the tech. I am in Germany and this is the one of the few times I haven't missed the webchat. Usually I mean to log on, taking the hour ahead into account, but I mess up. I will decline the chocolate though: it looks like Cadburys when Lindt is better!
Did you know the title of BJD in Germany was Chocolate for Breakfast?! Grin

MNHQ
RachelMumsnet · 14/12/2016 21:00

We're really thrilled that Helen Fielding is joining us tonight - on this special day when Bridget Jones was named one of the seven most influential women A reminder that everyone who joins the discussion will be entered into a draw to win a copy of Bridget Jones Baby: The Diaries.Welcome to Mumsnet and over to you Helen...

CFSKate · 14/12/2016 21:02

I read the Bridget Jones Diary column in the Independent just after Diana died and have never forgotten it. It summed up that week and time so well.

HelenFielding · 14/12/2016 21:02

@RachelMumsnet

We're really thrilled that Helen Fielding is joining us tonight - on this special day when Bridget Jones was named one of the seven most influential women A reminder that everyone who joins the discussion will be entered into a draw to win a copy of Bridget Jones Baby: The Diaries.Welcome to Mumsnet and over to you Helen...

Hello! It's great to be here I'm thrilled to be on Mumsnet. I wish you could see the chaos this end - I''m at the kitchen table surrounded by bits of technology, coffee cups and, for some reason, a pot of blue slime. My daughter told me last night I was "a beginner in slime." How is everyone?

worriedbigsis · 14/12/2016 21:06

It's breakfast time in Sydney. Now I'might tempted to have chocolate (and wine).

HelenFielding · 14/12/2016 21:10

@melanieclare2002

Hi Helen, I'm a huge fan of the Bridget Jones books and can't wait to read this latest novel! My question is: why did you decide to write them in the order you did, rather than chronologically? Thanks :)

Thank you - it's so great that people identify with Bridget.

Like the first two novels, Bridget Jones' Baby started its life as a column in London's Independent newspaper. This phase of her life was in the columns in 2006 and 2007. The movie took a long time in production - so long that I wrote the novel of the next phase in Bridget's life - Mad About the Boy - during those years.

When the Bridget Jones Baby movie was ready I wanted to celebrate by bringing out the original story, in Bridget's own words, in a novel in time for Christmas.

I know it's not chronological - but happily it's the story of a fictional comic character and not a history of the Battle of Waterloo. And it wouldn't really be Bridget - or for that matter me - to get everything in a completely straight line!