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

[SorchaMumsnet]

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.

@MinesAGin

The books do appeal just as much to younger women as those the same age as Bridget - my daughter's read all of them and loved them, as have all her friends.

That's great. But do tell them it's a LITTLE exaggerated so don't copy the alcohol units.

@MinesAGin

Were you involved in the casting at all, or do you just have to let it go? And once the films were made, did that affect the way you wrote the last book? Which Bridget were you writing for?

I love your books and don't know a woman who doesn't! (And far prefer them to the films.)

Aww thank you.

I could never have cast Bridget because I never actually see her, I see the world through her eyes. But I was really happy with Renee and I think, when I was writing Bridget Jones' Baby: the Diaries - I was starting to see her a little bit.

Of course I absolutely insisted on Colin Firth as - when the first movie was made - Pride and Prejudice was on the BBC. Colin has always remained the hybrid of Mr. Darcy, Mark Darcy, and Colin Firth, even when I meet him.

And Hugh and Daniel have become completely the same person in my mind. He came up with a lot of the lines in the original movie - like with the big pants
"Don't worry , I'm wearing something rather similar myself - Oh Mummy!"

Just wanted to say thank you for all the laughs - I'm pregnant at the minute and so feel somewhat on the same level as Bridget. Can only hope it doesn't end any worse than Bridget's situation did!! Look forward to whatever will happen in the future - bring on the laughs! Thanks again for being real x

Kimmy I'm just dandy

@Stillnoidea

What's your favourite ever bit of the Bridget Jones' books? There's so many but for me singing like a virgin in the Thai jail always sticks in my mind...

I like the bit in the new Bridget Jones' Baby book where Bridget tries to send out a birth announcement via e-mail - because that actually happened to me.

I had my daughter by C Section - so knew her name and the birth date already. I prepared a birth announcement ahead of time in very organized fashion. Then accidentally pressed "Send All"
Then I had to send another e-mail saying "I'm very sorry, I haven't actually had the baby yet."

And then when I did have the baby, I was too embarrassed to send another one saying "OK I've really had the baby now." It was like the boy who cried wolf.

Pregnancy and childbirth were rich material for this book.

I still prefer Greg Davies as Mr Wallaker. Am weird that way.
Daniel Craig's just too rugged.

Hi Helen,

As per my first question, my ex h maintains he dated you at oxford and retells the story of you slating him on a weekend for reading the paper (as per the rest of society). He hasn't changed! I wonder if you remember him (djh). I know he'd love to hear from you and I secretly wonder if his commitment-prob ways inspired you during the writing of BJ.

Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver is really great because I can see exactly why she'd be unable to resist him. And I love the casting of her friends, particularly in the early films.

I think what I loved in the original is the diary format, which is lost in the films. I love the way she's not overweight but thinks she is and there's a line when she comes back from Thailand when she says something about weight finding its own level - it really made me laugh out loud.

I think what gets me in the film is the horrible clothes she wears - in the books she wears lovely clothes - what were they doing?!

@Nurse15

Just wanted to say thank you for all the laughs - I'm pregnant at the minute and so feel somewhat on the same level as Bridget. Can only hope it doesn't end any worse than Bridget's situation did!! Look forward to whatever will happen in the future - bring on the laughs! Thanks again for being real x

How pregnant are you? Do you feel like you have a frozen turkey inside you?

Read the bit about forgetting all the PIN numbers and passwords -babys literally eat every number in your head, don't they?"

On being real - I think that's what's great about writing a diary anonymously - which is how I first started writing Bridget in the newspaper.
If I'd known so many people were going to read the diaries when I started, I'd never have dared be so honest.
Though I'd like to make it clear I've never got pregnant by two men.

Oooh all the exes now coming out!

I'll answer the last one first. I wrote Bridget Jones' Baby like I always do, cosy in an armchair, surrounded by mess, bits of paper, bits of chocolate, diet coke cans.

I always long to be the sort of person who rises at 6 to a lightly boiled egg , writes for three hours then goes off to play tennis and starts again the next day.
But for me its more like a compulsion - when I start I don't want to stop. I used to write for 12 hours at a stretch but you can't do that when you have children. But mine are very sweet and creep out in their PJS at night sometimes and sit with me.

@RachelMumsnet

Can I ask you our standard Mumsnet questions that we ask all authors?

Which childhood book most inspired you?

What was the last book you gave someone as a gift?

Which book are you hoping to get this Christmas?

And finally (v excited to hear this) can you describe the room where you wrote Bridget Jones's Baby?

Hey no judgement here haha!

18 weeks - just at the point of looking fat but not yet pregnant. I swear it's a baby and not all the chilli sensations I have been munching

The book which most inspired me was Pride and Prejudice - so much so that I stole the plot for my first book.

I actually made up my own plot for Bridget Jones' Baby - but I try to learn from Jane Austen that everything has to be tightly and carefully structured around the story, so that you want to turn the page, and that it looks very light and small on the top, but it's like a little duck bobbing along.

Underneath the legs are moving really fast - so all the themes are tying into the story and all the jokes are based on something true and real

@HelenFielding

I'll answer the last one first. I wrote Bridget Jones' Baby like I always do, cosy in an armchair, surrounded by mess, bits of paper, bits of chocolate, diet coke cans.

I always long to be the sort of person who rises at 6 to a lightly boiled egg , writes for three hours then goes off to play tennis and starts again the next day.
But for me its more like a compulsion - when I start I don't want to stop. I used to write for 12 hours at a stretch but you can't do that when you have children. But mine are very sweet and creep out in their PJS at night sometimes and sit with me.

[quote RachelMumsnet]
Can I ask you our standard Mumsnet questions that we ask all authors?

Which childhood book most inspired you?

What was the last book you gave someone as a gift?

Which book are you hoping to get this Christmas?

And finally (v excited to hear this) can you describe the room where you wrote Bridget Jones's Baby?

[/quote]

Hey Helen, are you a Mumsnetter?! You sound EXACTLY like one!

Hi Helen, my name is Matt and my husband is Rob he has bought me your new book, Bridget Jones's Baby, I'm reading it, I have already read about a boy and loved it, it made me laugh a lot and cry when Mark died, wish I could meet you as I'd love you to sign my books, please keep up the great work you do, as a gay man I love Bridget Jones, I think she is funny and wish I had her as a friend, Merry Christmas Helen to you and your family,

Love Matt & Rob Nicholson-Cook xx

@Bijouxxx

Hi Helen! Is there anything you have written that you regret/wish you gave a different outcome? Possibly due to the way it was received by readers e.g. Killing off mark darcy?

When Mad About the Boy came out - someone actually ran out of the pub yelling "You've murdered Colin Firth." "Mark Darcy is dead" was a lead story on the BBC news.

I had to explain that I hadn't actually murdered anyone and Colin Firth was still alive.

The truth is that it wouldn't work to write about Bridget being a smug married - and the stories are just what happens in my imagination. Mark Darcy would never leave Bridget because he's the quintessential gentleman.

I found it touching that the character mattered so much to people.

Sometimes I think the line between reality and fiction is blurring so much that if you put "Mark Darcy" on a ballot paper people would vote for him.
Actually I think he'd do very well.

[quote KimmySchmidtsSmile]Oh and almost forgot...
The Bridget Jones Musical which was linked to Sheridan Smith (workshopping it?) and Lily Allen at one point...you are reported to have said should happen in the next few years. How soon is now?! Do you see it taking as long to produce as the BJB movie and how frustrating for you is that process? (Would Hugh have taken part in the movie if scripts had shown him as a stand up guy rather than feckless/unreliable

He'd do really well!

@Nurse15

Hey no judgement here haha!

18 weeks - just at the point of looking fat but not yet pregnant. I swear it's a baby and not all the chilli sensations I have been munching

Haha. Bridget finds herself growing sideways in Bridget Jones' Baby. so she looks very fat yet wide.

Hugh Grant seems to play Daniel Cleaver in every single role, doesn't he?

Yes, the "Mark Darcy is dead" conversation was carried out in lots of houses! My friend and I bought the book at the same time and we had to whisper about it and stop talking when my daughter came into the room. Then she was reading it and I saw her jaw drop and I knew she'd read about it.

I'm so happy that the novel of Bridget Jones' Baby has been published and it's so great that the film was such a success too. I'm glad the original story behind the movie will be on the shelves this Christmas and people who have seen the film and read the book can now fantasize about sleeping with Colin Firth, Hugh Grant and Patrick Dempsey. There are bigger problems in the world at the moment than a superfluity of hot men

Sadly, that brings us to the end of the webchat. Thanks SO much Helen for joining us tonight and for entertaining us over the last hour. It's been such fun and we're really grateful to you for taking time out of your schedule. Well done on getting through on the tech front - you soon got into the swing! Now you're familiar with the process, we'd love to invite you to join us again in the future. Until then, thanks again and have a very happy Christmas.

I never got the feeling Colin Firth would be good in bed, though, Helen. In the book, yes, but not in the film. He's too cold.

Oh no! Thanks for the chat, Helen - it was great. Happy Christmas!