This week’s guest is the novelist and screenwriter Helen Fielding – most celebrated as the creator of Bridget Jones. 27 years ago, Fielding wrote an anonymous column in The Independent which followed the daily triumphs and tribulations of a thirty-something singleton who smoked too much, drank too much and obsessed endlessly over unavailable men and her calorie intake. Bridget Jones has become a global sensation – with the column becoming four bestselling books and three hit films. In this episode, Fielding talks to me about growing up in the Industrial North, her early days as a TV journalist, how wanting a swimming pool fuelled her ambitions to become a writer – and reveals that she’s hard at work on the next Bridget film.

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