Title for new Bridget Jones book revealed: "Mad About The Boy"

Helen Fielding's novel to be published October 15

TORONTO, May 28, 2013 /CNW/ - Helen Fielding - the British writer whose wildly popular newspaper column depicting a 30-something single woman living in London in the 1990s became a worldwide sensation in the guise of Bridget Jones - has written a new novel featuring her iconic protagonist. BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY will be published by Knopf Canada on October 15, in print and e-book editions, with a first printing of 50,000 copies.

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

Fielding's first book, Bridget Jones's Diary, was an international bestseller and global phenomenon when it was originally published in 1996. It was followed in 1999 by a sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Together, the novels sold more than 15 million copies and were published in 40 different countries, and both were adapted into blockbuster films starring Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant, and Colin Firth.

Louise Dennys, Executive Publisher of the Knopf Random Canada Publishing Group, said, "Helen Fielding accomplished something rare and wonderful as a writer--she brought a character into the lives of millions of people who today still smile at the memory of that all-too-human singleton in nineties' London.  BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY is a totally new phase in Bridget's life, as Helen indicated when she said, 'Bridget's life has moved on.' But, the question is, just how much?  Well, here is what we can share: the novel is set in present-day London; Bridget is older; she is still keeping a diary, but she is also immersed in texting and experimenting with social media, with an accent on 'social.'

"And how grateful I am to Helen Fielding," Louise Dennys, added, "for letting us into Bridget's life again—one of the great comic characters of our times."

In anticipation of the book's official publication in October, Fielding will be a breakfast speaker June 1^st at BookExpo America, the annual booksellers convention that is being held in New York. Fielding will be in Canada in October for media interviews and events. 

Excerpt from BRIDGET JONES: 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

Knopf Canada is a leading publisher of quality fiction and non-fiction. It is part of the Knopf Random Canada Publishing Group, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, which is the Canadian arm of Random House, Inc., the world's largest publisher of general interest hardcover, paperback and audio adult and children's fiction and nonfiction books.

SOURCE: Random House of Canada Limited

Nicola Makoway, Publicity Director, Random House of Canada
[phone], [email protected]