About Helen Fielding
Helen Fielding (born 19 February 1958) is a British journalist, novelist and screenwriter, best known as the creator of the fictional character Bridget Jones. Fielding’s first novel was set in a refugee camp in East Africa and she started writing Bridget Jones in an anonymous column in London’s Independent newspaper. This turned into an unexpected hit, leading to four Bridget Jones novels and four films. Fielding credits the success of Bridget Jones to tapping into the gap between how we all feel we are expected to be and how we really are. Fielding's novel Bridget Jones's Diary became a global bestseller, published in more than 40 countries. Fielding continued to chronicle Bridget’s life in the novels Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Bridget Jones’s Baby: the Diaries and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy all of which became international bestsellers. The films chronicling these adventures – Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Bridget Jones’s Baby and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy – were all successful commercially. In a 2004 poll for the BBC, Fielding was named the 29th most influential person in British culture. In December 2016, the BBC's Woman's Hour included Bridget Jones as one of the seven women who had most influenced British female culture over the last seven decades. Bridget was the only fictional woman included. Fielding's first novel, Cause Celeb, was published in 1994 to great reviews but limited sales. Fielding’s novel Bridget Jones's Diary became a global bestseller, published in over 40 countries.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.