New Bridget Jones book announced: Mad About The Boy - but who's the boy?

It was fourteen years since the second Bridget Jones book came out. Let us just digest that fact for a moment.

Two things: One, yes we really are that old. And two, Bridget will now be at least 45.

The new book is called Mad About The Boy, but we're currently left to wonder if Mr Darcy is the (middle-aged) boy in question, if Bridget has reverted to her singleton ways or is this boy a baby Jones-Darcy? And quite where will Hugh Grant fit into all this?

Whoever the boy may be, we have to keep faith with Bridget's creator, Helen Fielding, the writer who managed to nail the late '90s dating scene for an entire generation of women.

Both of Bridget's previous two diaries came out in a time pre-Facebook, pre-Twitter and even pre-mobile phone. And for someone of Bridget's high level of neuroticism and foot-in-mouth moments one can't help but worry about how she's coped with these technological developments.

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A statement from publishers Jonathan Cape said: "Bridget is older, she is still keeping a diary, but she is also immersed in texting and experimenting with social media, with an emphasis on 'social!'"

Jonathan Cape publishing director Dan Franklin added: "As a comic writer, Helen is without equal. Over 15 years ago she gave a voice to a generation of young women with the original Bridget book.

He continues: "Now they’ve grown up and she’s doing it again....this time with all the joys and complications of social media."

Much was written at the time about whether BJD was a feminist tome or if Bridget's faintly pathetic behavior and exaggerated neuroses were potentially harming the position and attitudes of women in modern society.

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Regardless, she became a cultural phenomenon, partly thanks to Renee Zellwegers' portrayal (and spot-on English accent) in the two films of the books, that also helped revamp Colin Firth's career.

Bridget's first public words appeared in an Independent column in 1995 - a time when shell suit memories were still painful and Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus was still relevant.

We've come an awfully long way since then. Hopefully Bridget has kept up. The news that the book will be released on 10 October feels a little like a long-lost freind is coming home from a decade travelling and 'finding herself'. We can't wait to catch up.