New ‘Bridget Jones’ novel from Helen Fielding due out next year

Author Helen Fielding announced this week that she is writing a new Bridget Jones novel, her third in the series, due out next year.

“The new novel is set in present-day London, with an entirely new scenario for Bridget,” Fielding explained. “If people laugh as much reading it as I am while writing it then we’ll all be very happy,” Entertainment Weekly reported.

The book will have a decidedly contemporary feel, with each chapter beginning with Bridget's tweets.

Speaking on the BBC's Women's Hour, Fielding said "It's more like 'number of Twitter followers: 0. Still no followers. Still no followers'. But she has grownup. My life has moved on and hers will move on too… She's still trying to give up [drinking and smoking], she's still on a diet. She's trying a bit harder, and is a bit more successful, but she's never really going to change."

It comes 13 years since the last book. Fielding said "I think I sort of lost my voice in terms of Bridget, for a long time after the unexpected success when it first came out."

Fielding told The Guardian she has recently become interested in writing about internet dating and that she is also working on a third Bridget Jones movie, but it will not be based on the new novel.

Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, and Hugh Grant cast in the first two movies, "Bridget Jones’s Diary" and "Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason," have signed up for the third installment which focuses on having a baby, EW confirmed.