Bridget Jones’s Diary

Description

USA Today‘s top 100 books to read while stuck at home social distancing 

The iconic #1 bestseller by Helen Fielding; Bridget Jones is now the inspiration for the September 2016 Working Title film release of Bridget Jones’s Baby, starring Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey and Emma Thompson.  

Bridget Jones’s Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud account of a year in the life of a thirty-something Singleton on a permanent doomed quest for self-improvement. Caught between the joys of Singleton fun, and the fear of dying alone and being found three weeks later half eaten by an Alsatian; tortured by Smug Married friends asking, “How’s your love life?” with lascivious, yet patronizing leers, Bridget resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult and learn to program the VCR. With a blend of flighty charm, existential gloom, and endearing self-deprecation, Bridget Jones’s Diary has touched a raw nerve with millions of readers the world round. Read it and laugh—before you cry, “Bridget Jones is me!”“Screamingly funny!”
—USA Today

“Bridget Jones is channeling something so universal and (horrifyingly) familiar that readers will giggle and sigh with collective delight.”
—Elle

“Fielding . . . has rummaged all too knowingly through the bedrooms, closets, hearts, and minds of women everywhere.”
—Glamour

“Hilarious and poignant.”
—The Washington Post

“Bridget Jones’s diary has made her the best friend of hundreds of thousands of women.”
—The New York Times

“A brilliant comic creation. Even men will laugh.”
—Salman RushdieHelen Fielding, a journalist and a novelist, is the author of three Bridget Jones novels, including Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Her other novels include Cause Celeb and Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination. She also co-wrote the screenplays for the blockbuster movie adaptations of the first two Bridget Jones books as well as for the forthcoming Working Titles film Bridget Jones’s Baby (in theaters September 2016); which she is also an executive producer. Follow her on Twitter @bridgetjoneshf.

INTRODUCTION

Single, thirty-something career woman Bridget Jones has taken the best-seller lists by storm—much to her creator’s surprise—and entered the English language and psyche. As Newsweek put it, “Ally McBeal better watch her scrawny little back—Bridget Jones is coming to America.” Too thin and upwardly mobile, Ally nevertheless shares with Bridget an obsessive, slightly paranoid preoccupation with her love life (or lack thereof), which proves the point: Bridget lives in all of us. She is every woman who has ever looked in the mirror and groaned, resolved to Do Something About It (whether via gym membership, slashing caloric intake, or marshaling Inner Resources), and kicked off the new program in a fattening or embarrassingly public manner.

As Helen Fielding puts it for this Guide, “Bridget’s battling with two different ideas. One is the image of the Cosmo Girl, that she should be living this great, independent life full of friends and glamorous dinner parties. The second is the old fashioned idea of failure: that if you’re not married by thirty, you’ll die alone and be found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian.”

So what’ll it be: tragic, barren spinsterhood, or relegation to the dull, diaper-and-coordinated-pasta-container-filled realm of the Smug Marrieds?

Take the following quiz to see where you fit on the Bridget-O-Meter. Have you ever:

• realized cellulite is creation of fiendish, misogynist extraterrestrial force in grips of which female earthlings are helpless (or entertained similar, late-night theory)
  [ ] NEVER [ ] OCCASIONALLY [ ] FREQUENTLY
• not heard doorbell rung by attractive man owing to proximity of industrial-strength hairdryer to ear?
  [ ] NEVER [ ] OCCASIONALLY [ ] FREQUENTLY
• had genuine concern about whereabouts of missing friend tempered by gratification at possessing perfect outfit for funeral?
  [ ] NEVER [ ] OCCASIONALLY [ ] FREQUENTLY
• calculated likelihood of dying alone, in bad underwear
  [ ] NEVER [ ] OCCASIONALLY [ ] FREQUENTLY
• found more than four pairs of black pantyhose—each unwearable for a different reason—in drawer at any one time?
  [ ] NEVER [ ] OCCASIONALLY [ ] FREQUENTLY
• served guests food of a color not existing in nature? (Add five points if color is blue; one point per half-hour period between 8:30 and the hour at which dinner typically materializes; two points if consistently tempted to impress guests with food cannot pronounce.)
  [ ] NEVER [ ] OCCASIONALLY [ ] FREQUENTLY
• checked phone messages more than six times an hour in any four-day period following initial sexual encounter?
  [ ] NEVER [ ] OCCASIONALLY [ ] FREQUENTLY
• been late to first day on job because of two+ hours spent on optimum hair/make-up/outfit combo? (Add one point if ensemble still turned out to be dead wrong. Add two points if punctuality continues to prove elusive.)
  [ ] NEVER [ ] OCCASIONALLY [ ] FREQUENTLY

Each “never” answer is worth one point; each “occasionally” worth two points; each “frequently” worth three points. If you score over 25, you may be Bridget—unlike Helen Fielding, who says firmly, “No, I’m not Bridget. I don’t smoke or drink, and I’m a virgin.” Nonetheless, her hilarious account of the miseries and triumphs of one very modern woman makes Fielding a spokesperson for all of us.

PRAISE

“Screamingly funny.”
—USA Today

“Bridget Jones is channeling something so universal and (horrifyingly) familiar that readers will giggle and sigh with collective delight.”
—Elle

“Hilarious but poignant.”
—The Washington Post

“Bridget’s voice is dead-on . . . will cause readers to drop the book, grope frantically for the phone, and read it out loud to their best girlfriends.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“This juicy diary tells the truth with a verve as appealing to men on Mars as it is to Venusian women. A.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“Newspaper columnist Fielding’s first effort, a bestseller in Britain, lives up to the hype: This year in the life of a single women is closely observed and laugh-out-loud funny . . . Fielding’s diarist raises prickly insecurities to an art form, turns bad men into good anecdotes, and shows that it is possible to have both a keen eye for irony and a generous heart.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Even men will laugh.”
—Salman Rushdie

“Good-bye Rules Girls, hello Singletons . . . Endearingly engaging.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Fielding . . . has rummaged all too knowingly through the bedrooms, closets, hearts and minds of women everywhere.”
—Glamour

ABOUT HELEN FIELDING

Helen Fielding was born in an industrial town in the north of England, studied at Oxford University, and went on to work in television at the BBC. Her first novel, Cause Celeb, was based on her experience while filming documentaries in Africa for Comic Relief. She now lives in London, after a spell as a newspaper journalist, and is hard at work on the sequel to Bridget Jones’s Diary. She is also working on the screenplay for the book, which is being made into a feature film by the producers of Four Weddings and a Funeral. Surely you know better than to ask whether she’s married.

A CONVERSATION WITH HELEN FIELDING

Did anything in particular strike you about the reaction of American readers?

I was very surprised that the book took off in America. Before I left, there was an open letter in the paper saying “Don’t go there, they won’t get it, Americans don’t understand irony and self-deprecation.” There’s a strong culture of self-improvement in America, which is both good and bad. The idea of getting up at five and whizzing from the gym to the board meeting, of getting your bottom down to size and suddenly deciding your soul needs work. I think it’s rather a joyless way of being for women, but it seems to have infected us on a global scale. I think that’s what people latched on to most.

Why did you write Bridget as a diary?

The best advice I ever had about writing was to do it as if you were writing for a friend. The diary form’s very good for that, very direct and intimate. Because it’s an imaginary character, you can hide behind a persona. It also allows you to write the sort of shameful thoughts that everyone has but no one wants to admit to, since you’re not trying to make anyone like you. A diary is an outlet for your most private thoughts, a very personal way of writing. And that feeling of peeping behind a curtain at someone’s else’s life is good for a reader.

Will the sequel also be in diary form?

Yes.

What percentage of your readership do you think is male?

I have no idea, but I do know that there seem to more male readers now. I think lots of people have been given it by their girlfriends, who say, “If you want to understand how women’s minds work, read this.” When I was writing the column, many men wrote in who thought Bridget was real. One wrote a letter to the editor which read: “Dear Sir, I would quite like to shag Bridget Jones. Could you please let me have her phone number? Many thanks. Yours faithfully.” It was quite formal.

Have men actually learned from it?

Smug Marrieds have, because nobody asks me whether I’m married any more. And no more patronizing comments from my married friends; their attitudes really have changed. It sounds rude to go to a Smug Married and say, “How’s your marriage going, still having sex?”, but not to go up to a Singleton and say, “How’s your love life?” It’s great if people realize that there isn’t just one way to live. That’s an old-fashioned concept, and I think it’s losing its grip on us. Life in cities is very similar all over the world, and people do tend to live in urban families as much as in nuclear ones. They’re not worse off or better off; the point is that it’s no longer abnormal to be single.

One of the pleasures of reading Bridget is the vocabulary you invented. Do you have a favorite word or phrase?

I’m very pleased about the word “singleton,” which of course wasn’t my word. A friend made it up for a party: “singleton’s in one hotel, marrieds in another!” “Spinster” is horrible, with connotations of spinning wheels failure. “Singleton’s” a good word, and it applies to both men and women

Any new coinages?

Yes, “mentionitis.” It’s that thing where you can tell someone has a crush on someone because their name keeps coming up in the conversation, completely irrelevantly.

In the event that Bridget joins the ranks of the Marrieds, what aspects of matrimony would you like to tackle?

I’m not sure whether she’ll do that, but it’s an interesting area. I’m going to look at the reason why men and women do find it difficult to be together, as roles change. Jane Austen was also writing about dating, but in her day the rules were very clear, whereas now it’s a quagmire of bluff and counterbluff. Everyone’s so busy playing it cool, discussing the next maneuver with their friends, it a miracle that people manage to get together at all.

Is smugness an inevitable component of married life?

No, not at all. I just think that it’s very easy for one group of people to decide that their way of living is the right way, and it’s always a mistake for people to do that. No one ever knows what’s around the corner.

A review in Entertainment Weekly described the book as “subversive.” Was that your intent?

I’d use ironic rather than subversive. You can’t really explain irony, either. Either you think it’s funny or you don’t. One of may favorite parts of the book is when Bridget declares, “There’s nothing quite so unattractive to a man as a strident feminist.”

Would you call Bridget a heroine or an anti-heroine?

I think Bridget’s an ironic heroine.

How strong is the link is between economic self-sufficiency and emotional well-being for women?

Austen did say the only thing that renders a single women pitiable is poverty, in Emma, I think. Now it’s no longer necessary to be married in order to be well off. I think it has to do with others’ perceptions. People who feel sorry for single women tend to feel less so if the women are wealthy, but of course that doesn’t mean the women are happier. I just think it’s a good idea not to be bigoted.

Do you think women’s aspirations have changed substantially in the last few decades?

Yes, things have changed hugely. Roles have shifted enormously, in terms of economic power for one thing. In relation to Bridget, the book is really about trying too hard, trying to be too perfect, and sort of missing the point that what makes Bridget appealing is that she’s fun, she’s nice, she’s a good friend. She’s just normal and that’s fine. We sometimes lose sight of that alongside the qualities of having it all: a job, a briefcase, a bottom like two snooker balls.

How do you feel about the reviews which felt the book was an “insult to feminism”?

I can quite see that if you’re not keen on irony as a form of expression, the book might get on your nerves. It was initially written to make people laugh. If it raises some issues that strike a nerve, so much the better. Novels are there to reflect the truth in what they see, as well as to entertain.

Can feminism encompass comic heroines?

There are so many male comic heroes. Take Bertie Wooster, from P. G. Wodehouse—we don’t take him as a symbol as a state of manhood. We’ve got to be able to have comic heroines without being so terribly anxious about what it says. We’re not equal if we’re not allowed to laugh at ourselves.. Maybe it’s to do with confidence, since being able to laugh at yourself is a mark of it.

The book is dedicated to your mum, “for not being like Bridget’s.” What piece of advice might you give to mothers around the world?

I think when your daughter says, “I have to go now, Mum,” not to bring up seventeen irrelevant things. The only thing I sometimes pinch off my mum is her turn of phrase. She did say to the [condescending] tax man, “Listen can you make good brioche?”—Ashton Applewhite

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

At one point Bridget realizes that she’s been on a diet for so many years that “the idea that you might actually need calories to survive has been completely wiped out of my consciousness.” Yet one of her greatest assets is that she recognizes that this eternal quest for self-improvement is doomed and silly. How does the media influence women’s self-images? Why do women collaborate so energetically in the process? When Bridget decides she’s simply not up to the struggle and is going to stay home in an egg-spotted sweater, it is a victory or a defeat?
 

Was the book as satisfying to read as a conventionally structured novel? How did the diary form affect your impression of Bridget Jones’s Diary? Does it make you want to keep one, and if so, why?
 

What do you think Bridget looks like? Why does Fielding never describe her? Given the frequent references to shagging, why are there no steamy sex scenes either?

“We women are only vulnerable because we are a pioneer generation daring to refuse to compromise in love and relying on our own economic power. In twenty years’ time men won’t even dare start with fuckwittage because we will just laugh in their faces,” bellows Sharon early in the story. What purpose does Sharon’s character serve? Do you think she’s got a point? How do you think Bridget’s daughter’s story might differ from her mother’s?
 

At one point Bridget describes her mother as having been infected with “Having It All Syndrome.” Does Bridget herself have a closet case of the same affliction? (She does, after all, have an affair with her glamorous boss in publishing and a knack for TV production.) How important is professional achievement to the Bridgets of the world?
 

On the one hand, Bridget’s mother gets her daughter the job in television and is a constant in her daughter’s life; on the other hand, she’s impossibly self-centered, endlessly critical, and an object of some competition. “Bloody Mum,” Bridget groans at one point, “how come she gets to be the irresistible sex goddess?” Is Bridget’s mother a negative or positive influence on Bridget? How has she shaped her daughter?
 

“We’re not lonely. We have extended families in the form of networks of friends,” says Tom, joining Sharon in deploring others’ “arrogant hand-wringing about single life.” Are these “urban families” an acceptable alternative to traditional family units? Are they helping to move society towards Fielding’s objective, an unbiased acceptance of different ways of life?
 

Bridget’s world is unrelentingly self-centered. Is this problematic? If not, is Bridget rescued by her wit and lack of self-pity, by the fact that she does take responsibility for herself, or by something else entirely?
 

Is the attraction between Mark Darcy and Bridget credible? Why isn’t he too “safe” for her? Why isn’t she too scatterbrained for him? Is it satisfying or clichéd when he literally carries her off to bed?
 

How much of Bridget’s identity lies in the quest for a decent relationship? Do you think marriage would change her?

A big Jane Austen fan, Helen Fielding cheerfully admits she “pillaged her plot” from Pride and Prejudice. She’s modeling the sequel on Persuasion—how about reading it in preparation?

January: An Exceptionally Bad Start

Sunday 1 January

129 lbs. (but post-Christmas), alcohol units 14 (but effectively covers 2 days as 4 hours of party was on New Year’s Day), cigarettes 22, calories 5424.

Food consumed today:

2 pkts Emmenthal cheese slices
14 cold new potatoes
2 Bloody Marys (count as food as contain Worcester sauce and tomatoes)
1/3 Ciabatta loaf with Brie
coriander leaves–1/2 packet
12 Milk Tray (best to get rid of all Christmas confectionery in one go and make fresh start tomorrow)
13 cocktail sticks securing cheese and pineapple
Portion Una Alconbury’s turkey curry, peas and bananas
Portion Una Alconbury’s Raspberry Surprise made with Bourbon biscuits, tinned raspberries, eight gallons of
whipped cream, decorated with glacé cherries and angelica.

Noon. London: my flat. Ugh. The last thing on earth I feel physically, emotionally or mentally equipped to do is drive to Una and Geoffrey Alconbury’s New Year’s Day Turkey Curry Buffet in Grafton Underwood. Geoffrey and Una Alconbury are my parents’ best friends and, as Uncle Geoffrey never tires of reminding me, have known me since I was running round the lawn with no clothes on. My mother rang up at 8:30 in the morning last August Bank Holiday and forced me to promise to go. She approached it via a cunningly circuitous route.

“Oh, hello, darling. I was just ringing to see what you wanted for Christmas.”

“Christmas?”

“Would you like a surprise, darling?”

“No!” I bellowed. “Sorry. I mean …”

“I wondered if you’d like a set of wheels for your suitcase.”

“But I haven’t got a suitcase.”

“Why don’t I get you a little suitcase with wheels attached. You know, like air hostesses have.”

“I’ve already got a bag.”

“Oh, darling, you can’t go around with that tatty green canvas thing. You look like some sort of Mary Poppins person who’s fallen on hard times. Just a little compact case with a pull-out handle. It’s amazing how much you can get in. Do you want it in navy on red or red on navy?”

“Mum. It’s eight-thirty in the morning. It’s summer. It’s very hot. I don’t want an air-hostess bag.”

“Julie Enderby’s got one. She says she never uses anything else.”

“Who’s Julie Enderby?”

“You know Julie, darling! Mavis Enderby’s daughter. Julie! The one that’s got that super-dooper job at Arthur Andersen …”

“Mum …”

“Always takes it on her trips …”

“I don’t want a little bag with wheels on.”

“I’ll tell you what. Why don’t Jamie, Daddy and I all club together and get you a proper new big suitcase and a set of wheels?”

Exhausted, I held the phone away from my ear, puzzling about where the missionary luggage-Christmas-gift zeal had stemmed from. When I put the phone back she was saying: “… in actual fact, you can get them with a compartment with bottles for your bubble bath and things. The other thing I thought of was a shopping cart.”

“Is there anything you’d like for Christmas?” I said desperately, blinking in the dazzling Bank Holiday sunlight.

“No, no,” she said airily. “I’ve got everything I need. Now, darling,” she suddenly hissed, “you will be coming to Geoffrey and Una’s New Year’s Day Turkey Curry Buffet this year, won’t you?”

“Ah. Actually, I …” I panicked wildly. What could I pretend to be doing? “… think I might have to work on New Year’s Day.”

“That doesn’t matter. You can drive up after work. Oh, did I mention? Malcolm and Elaine Darcy are coming and bringing Mark with them. Do you remember Mark, darling? He’s one of those top-notch barristers. Masses of money. Divorced. It doesn’t start till eight.”

Oh God. Not another strangely dressed opera freak with bushy hair burgeoning from a side-part. “Mum, I’ve told you. I don’t need to be fixed up with …”

“Now come along, darling. Una and Geoffrey have been holding the New Year buffet since you were running round the lawn with no clothes on! Of course you’re going to come. And you’ll be able to use your new suitcase.”

11:45 p.m. Ugh. First day of New Year has been day of horror. Cannot quite believe I am once again starting the year in a single bed in my parents’ house. It is too humiliating at my age. I wonder if they’ll smell it if I have a fag out of the window. Having skulked at home all day, hoping hangover would clear, I eventually gave up and set off for the Turkey Curry Buffet far too late. When I got to the Alconburys’ and rang their entire-tune-of-town-hall-clock-style doorbell I was still in a strange world of my own–nauseous, vile-headed, acidic. I was also suffering from road-rage residue after inadvertently getting on to the M6 instead of the M1 and having to drive halfway to Birmingham before I could find anywhere to turn round. I was so furious I kept jamming my foot down to the floor on the accelerator pedal to give vent to my feelings, which is very dangerous. I watched resignedly as Una Alconbury’s form–intriguingly deformed through the ripply glass door–bore down on me in a fuchsia two-piece.

“Bridget! We’d almost given you up for lost! Happy New Year! Just about to start without you.” She seemed to manage to kiss me, get my coat off, hang it over the banister, wipe her lipstick off my cheek and make me feel incredibly guilty all in one movement, while I leaned against the ornament shelf for support.

“Sorry. I got lost.”

“Lost? Durr! What are we going to do with you? Come on in!”

She led me through the frosted-glass doors into the lounge, shouting, “She got lost, everyone!”

“Bridget! Happy New Year!” said Geoffrey Alconbury, clad in a yellow diamond-patterned sweater. He did a jokey Bob Hope step then gave me the sort of hug which Boots would send straight to the police station.

“Hahumph,” he said, going red in the face and pulling his trousers up by the waistband. “Which junction did you come off at?”

“Junction nineteen, but there was a diversion …”

“Junction nineteen! Una, she came off at Junction nineteen! You’ve added an hour to your journey before you even started. Come on, let’s get you a drink. How’s your love life, anyway?”

Oh God. Why can’t married people understand that this is no longer a polite question to ask? We wouldn’t rush up to them and roar, “How’s your marriage going? Still having sex?” Everyone knows that dating in your thirties is not the happy-go-lucky free-for-all it was when you were twenty-two and that the honest answer is more likely to be, “Actually, last night my married lover appeared wearing suspenders and a darling little Angora crop-top, told me he was gay/a sex addict/a narcotic addict/a commitment phobic and beat me up with a dildo,” than, “Super, thanks.” Not being a natural liar, I ended up mumbling shamefacedly to Geoffrey, “Fine,” at which point he boomed, “So you still haven’t got a feller!”

“Bridget! What are we going to do with you!” said Una. “You career girls! I don’t know! Can’t put it off forever, you know. Tick-tock-tick-tock.”

“Yes. How does a woman manage to get to your age without being married?” roared Brian Enderby (married to Mavis, used to be president of the Rotary in Kettering), waving his sherry in the air. Fortunately my dad rescued me.

“I’m very pleased to see you, Bridget,” he said, taking my arm. “Your mother has the entire Northamptonshire constabulary poised to comb the county with toothbrushes for your dismembered remains. Come and demonstrate your presence so I can start enjoying myself. How’s the be-wheeled suitcase?”

“Big beyond all sense. How are the ear-hair clippers?”

“Oh, marvelously–you know–clippy.”

It was all right, I suppose. I would have felt a bit mean if I hadn’t turned up, but Mark Darcy … Yuk. Every time my mother’s rung up for weeks it’s been, “Of course you remember the Darcys, darling. They came over when we were living in Buckingham and you and Mark played in the paddling pool!” or, “Oh! Did I mention Malcolm and Elaine are bringing Mark with them to Una’s New Year’s Day Turkey Curry Buffet? He’s just back from America, apparently. Divorced. He’s looking for a house in Holland Park. Apparently he had the most terrible time with his wife. Japanese. Very cruel race.”

Then next time, as if out of the blue, “Do you remember Mark Darcy, darling? Malcolm and Elaine’s son? He’s one of these super-dooper top-notch lawyers. Divorced. Elaine says he works all the time and he’s terribly lonely. I think he might be coming to Una’s New Year’s Day Turkey Curry Buffet, actually.”

I don’t know why she didn’t just come out with it and say, “Darling, do shag Mark Darcy over the turkey curry, won’t you? He’s very rich.”

“Come along and meet Mark,” Una Alconbury singsonged before I’d even had time to get a drink down me. Being set up with a man against your will is one level of humiliation, but being literally dragged into it by Una Alconbury while caring for an acidic hangover, watched by an entire roomful of friends of your parents, is on another plane altogether.

The rich, divorced-by-cruel-wife Mark–quite tall–was standing with his back to the room, scrutinizing the contents of the Alconburys’ bookshelves: mainly leather-bound series of books about the Third Reich, which Geoffrey sends off for from Reader’s Digest. It struck me as pretty ridiculous to be called Mr. Darcy and to stand on your own looking snooty at a party. It’s like being called Heathcliff and insisting on spending the entire evening in the garden, shouting “Cathy” and banging your head against a tree.

“Mark!” said Una, as if she was one of Santa Claus’s fairies. “I’ve got someone nice for you to meet.”

He turned round, revealing that what had seemed from the back like a harmless navy sweater was actually a V-neck diamond-patterned in shades of yellow and blue–as favored by the more elderly of the nation’s sports reporters. As my friend Tom often remarks, it’s amazing how much time and money can be saved in the world of dating by close attention to detail. A white sock here, a pair of red braces there, a gray slip-on shoe, a swastika, are as often as not all one needs to tell you there’s no point writing down phone numbers and forking out for expensive lunches because it’s never going to be a runner.

“Mark, this is Colin and Pam’s daughter, Bridget,” said Una, going all pink and fluttery. “Bridget works in publishing, don’t you, Bridget?”

“I do indeed,” I for some reason said, as if I were taking part in a Capital radio phone-in and was about to ask Una if I could “say hello” to my friends Jude, Sharon and Tom, my brother Jamie, everyone in the office, my mum and dad, and last of all all the people at the Turkey Curry Buffet.

“Well, I’ll leave you two young people together,” said Una. “Durr! I expect you’re sick to death of us old fuddy-duddies.”

“Not at all,” said Mark Darcy awkwardly with a rather unsuccessful attempt at a smile, at which Una, after rolling her eyes, putting a hand to her bosom and giving a gay tinkling laugh, abandoned us with a toss of her head to a hideous silence.

“I. Um. Are you reading any, ah … Have you read any good books lately?” he said.

Oh, for God’s sake.

I racked my brain frantically to think when I last read a proper book. The trouble with working in publishing is that reading in your spare time is a bit like being a dustman and snuffling through the pig bin in the evening. I’m halfway through Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, which Jude lent me, but I didn’t think Mark Darcy, though clearly odd, was ready to accept himself as a Martian quite yet. Then I had a brainwave.

“Backlash, actually, by Susan Faludi,” I said triumphantly. Hah! I haven’t exactly read it as such, but feel I have as Sharon has been ranting about it so much. Anyway, completely safe option as no way diamond-pattern-jumpered goody-goody would have read five-hundred-page feminist treatise.

“Ah. Really?” he said. “I read that when it first came out. Didn’t you find there was rather a lot of special pleading?”

“Oh, well, not too much …,” I said wildly, racking my brains for a way to get off the subject. “Have you been staying with your parents over New Year?”

“Yes,” he said eagerly. “You too?”

“Yes. No. I was at a party in London last night. Bit hungover, actually.” I gabbed nervously so that Una and Mum wouldn’t think I was so useless with men I was failing to talk to even Mark Darcy. “But then I do think New Year’s resolutions can’t technically be expected to begin on New Year’s Day, don’t you? Since, because it’s an extension of New Year’s Eve, smokers are already on a smoking roll and cannot be expected to stop abruptly on the stroke of midnight with so much nicotine in the system. Also dieting on New Year’s Day isn’t a good idea as you can’t eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover. I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second.”

“Maybe you should get something to eat,” he said, then suddenly bolted off toward the buffet, leaving me standing on my own by the bookshelf while everybody stared at me, thinking, “So that’s why Bridget isn’t married. She repulses men.”

The worst of it was that Una Alconbury and Mum wouldn’t leave it at that. They kept making me walk round with trays of gherkins and glasses of cream sherry in a desperate bid to throw me into Mark Darcy’s path yet again. In the end they were so crazed with frustration that the second I got within four feet of him with the gherkins Una threw herself across the room like Will Carling and said, “Mark, you must take Bridget’s telephone number before you go, then you can get in touch when you’re in London.”

I couldn’t stop myself turning bright red. I could feel it climbing up my neck. Now Mark would think I’d put her up to it.

“I’m sure Bridget’s life in London is quite full enough already, Mrs. Alconbury,” he said. Humph. It’s not that I wanted him to take my phone number or anything, but I didn’t want him to make it perfectly obvious to everyone that he didn’t want to. As I looked down I saw that he was wearing white socks with a yellow bumblebee motif.

“Can’t I tempt you with a gherkin?” I said, to show I had had a genuine reason for coming over, which was quite definitely gherkin-based rather than phone-number-related.

“Thank you, no,” he said, looking at me with some alarm.

“Sure? Stuffed olive?” I pressed on.

“No, really.”

“Silverskin onion?” I encouraged. “Beetroot cube?”

“Thank you,” he said desperately, taking an olive.

“Hope you enjoy it,” I said triumphantly.

Toward the end I saw him being harangued by his mother and Una, who marched him over toward me and stood just behind while he said stiffly, “Do you need driving back to London? I’m staying here but I could get my car to take you.”

“What, all on its own?” I said.

He blinked at me.

“Durr! Mark has a company car and a driver, silly,” said Una.

“Thank you, that’s very kind,” I said. “But I shall be taking one of my trains in the morning.” 2 a.m. Oh, why am I so unattractive? Why? Even a man who wears bumblebee socks thinks I am horrible. Hate the New Year. Hate everyone. Except Daniel Cleaver. Anyway, have got giant tray-sized bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk left over from Christmas on dressing table, also amusing joke gin and tonic miniature. Am going to consume them and have fag.

Tuesday 3 January

130 lbs. (terrifying slide into obesity–why? why?), alcohol units 6 (excellent), cigarettes 23 (v.g.), calories 2472. 9 a.m. Ugh. Cannot face thought of going to work. Only thing which makes it tolerable is thought of seeing Daniel again, but even that is inadvisable since am fat, have spot on chin, and desire only to sit on cushion eating chocolate and watching Xmas specials. It seems wrong and unfair that Christmas, with its stressful and unmanageable financial and emotional challenges, should first be forced upon one wholly against one’s will, then rudely snatched away just when one is starting to get into it. Was really beginning to enjoy the feeling that normal service was suspended and it was OK to lie in bed as long as you want, put anything you fancy into your mouth, and drink alcohol whenever it should chance to pass your way, even in the mornings. Now suddenly we are all supposed to snap into self-discipline like lean teenage greyhounds.

10 p.m. Ugh. Perpetua, slightly senior and therefore thinking she is in charge of me, was at her most obnoxious and bossy, going on and on to the point of utter boredom about latest half-million-pound property she is planning to buy with her rich-but-overbred boyfriend, Hugo: “Yars, yars, well it is north-facing but they’ve done something frightfully clever with the light.”

I looked at her wistfully, her vast, bulbous bottom swathed in a tight red skirt with a bizarre three-quarter-length striped waistcoat strapped across it. What a blessing to be born with such Sloaney arrogance. Perpetua could be the size of a Renault Espace and not give it a thought. How many hours, months, years, have I spent worrying about weight while Perpetua has been happily looking for lamps with porcelain cats as bases around the Fulham Road? She is missing out on a source of happiness, anyway. It is proved by surveys that happiness does not come from love, wealth or power but the pursuit of attainable goals: and what is a diet if not that?

On way home in end-of-Christmas denial I bought a packet of cut-price chocolate tree decorations and a £3.69 bottle of sparkling wine from Norway, Pakistan or similar. I guzzled them by the light of the Christmas tree, together with a couple of mince pies, the last of the Christmas cake and some Stilton, while watching Eastenders, imagining it was a Christmas special.

Now, though, I feel ashamed and repulsive. I can actually feel the fat splurging out from my body. Never mind. Sometimes you have to sink to a nadir of toxic fat envelopment in order to emerge, phoenix-like, from the chemical wasteland as a purged and beautiful Michelle Pfeiffer figure. Tomorrow new Spartan health and beauty regime will begin.

Mmmm. Daniel Cleaver, though. Love his wicked dissolute air, while being v. successful and clever. He was being v. funny today, telling everyone about his aunt thinking the onyx kitchen-roll holder his mother had given her for Christmas was a model of a penis. Was really v. amusing about it. Also asked me if I got anything nice for Christmas in rather flirty way. Think might wear short black skirt tomorrow.

Wednesday 4 January

131 lbs. (state of emergency now as if fat has been stored in capsule form over Christmas and is being slowly released under skin), alcohol units 5 (better), cigarettes 20, calories 700 (v.g.).

4 p.m. Office. State of emergency. Jude just rang up from her portable phone in flood of tears, and eventually managed to explain, in a sheep’s voice, that she had just had to excuse herself from a board meeting (Jude is Head of Futures at Brightlings) as she was about to burst into tears and was now trapped in the ladies’ with Alice Cooper eyes and no makeup bag. Her boyfriend, Vile Richard (self-indulgent commitment phobic), whom she has been seeing on and off for eighteen months, had chucked her for asking him if he wanted to come on holiday with her.

Typical, but Jude naturally was blaming it all on herself.

“I’m co-dependent. I asked for too much to satisfy my own neediness rather than need. Oh, if only I could turn back the clock.”

I immediately called Sharon and an emergency summit has been scheduled for 6:30 in Café Rouge. I hope I can get away without bloody Perpetua kicking up.

11 p.m. Strident evening. Sharon immediately launched into her theory on the Richard situation: “Emotional fuckwittage,” which is spreading like wildfire among men over thirty. As women glide from their twenties to thirties, Shazzer argues, the balance of power subtly shifts. Even the most outrageous minxes lose their nerve, wrestling with the first twinges of existential angst: fears of dying alone and being found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian. Stereotypical notions of shelves, spinning wheels and sexual scrapheaps conspire to make you feel stupid, no matter how much time you spend thinking about Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon.

“And men like Richard,” fumed Sharon, “play on the chink in the armor to wriggle out of commitment, maturity, honor and the natural progression of things between a man and a woman.”

By this time Jude and I were going, “Shhh, shhh,” out of the corners of our mouths and sinking down into our coats. After all, there is nothing so unattractive to a man as strident feminism.

“How dare he say you were getting too serious by asking to go on holiday with him?” yelled Sharon. “What is he talking about?”

Thinking moonily about Daniel Cleaver, I ventured that not all men are like Richard. At which point Sharon started on a long illustrative list of emotional fuckwittage in progress in our friends: one whose boyfriend of thirteen years refuses even to discuss living together; another who went out with a man four times who then chucked her because it was getting too serious; another who was pursued by a bloke for three months with impassioned proposals of marriage, only to find him ducking out three weeks after she succumbed and repeating the whole process with her best friend.

“We women are only vulnerable because we are a pioneer generation daring to refuse to compromise in love and relying on our own economic power. In twenty years’ time men won’t even dare start with fuckwittage because we will just laugh in their faces,” bellowed Sharon.

At this point Alex Walker, who works in Sharon’s company, strolled in with a stunning blonde who was about eight times as attractive as him. He ambled over to us to say hi.

“Is this your new girlfriend?” asked Sharon.

“Well. Huh. You know, she thinks she is, but we’re not going out, we’re just sleeping together. I ought to stop it really, but, well …,” he said, smugly.

“Oh, that is just such crap, you cowardly, dysfunctional little schmuck. Right. I’m going to talk to that woman,” said Sharon, getting up. Jude and I forcibly restrained her while Alex, looking panic-stricken, rushed back to continue his fuckwittage unrumbled.

Eventually the three of us worked out a strategy for Jude. She must stop beating herself over the head with Women Who Love Too Much and instead think more toward Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, which will help her to see Richard’s behavior less as a sign that she is co-dependent and loving too much and more in the light of him being like a Martian rubber band which needs to stretch away in order to come back.

“Yes, but does that mean I should call him or not?” said Jude.

“No,” said Sharon, just as I was saying, “Yes.”

After Jude had gone–because she has to get up at 5:45 to go to the gym and see her personal shopper before work starts at 8:30 (mad)–Sharon and I suddenly were filled with remorse and self-loathing for not advising Jude simply to get rid of Vile Richard because he is vile. But then, as Sharon pointed out, last time we did that they got back together and she told him everything we’d said in a fit of reconciliatory confession and now it is cripplingly embarrassing every time we see him and he thinks we are the Bitch Queens from Hell–which, as Jude points out, is a misapprehension because, although we have discovered our Inner Bitches, we have not yet unlocked them.

Thursday 5 January

129 lbs. (excellent progress–2 lbs. of fat spontaneously combusted through joy and sexual promise), alcohol units 6 (v.g. for party), cigarettes 12 (continuing good work), calories 1258 (love has eradicated need to pig out). 11 a.m. Office. Oh my God. Daniel Cleaver just sent me a message. Was trying to work on CV without Perpetua noticing (in preparation for improving career) when Message Pending suddenly flashed up on top of screen.

Delighted by, well, anything–as always am if is not work–I quickly pressed RMS Execute and nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw Cleave at the bottom of the message. I instantly thought he had been able to tap into the computer and see that I was not getting on with my work. But then I read the message:

Message Jones

You appear to have forgotten your skirt. As I think is made perfectly clear in your contract of employment, staff are expected to be fully dressed at all times.

Cleave

Hah! Undeniably flirtatious. Thought for a little while whilst pretending to study tedious-beyond-belief manuscript from lunatic. Have never messaged Daniel Cleaver before but brilliant thing about messaging system is you can be really quite cheeky and informal, even to your boss. Also can spend ages practicing. This is what sent.

Message Cleave

Sir, am appalled by message. Whilst skirt could reasonably be described as a little on the skimpy side (thrift being ever our watchword in editorial), consider it gross misrepresentation to describe said skirt as absent, and considering contacting union.

Jones

Waited in frenzy of excitement for reply. Sure enough. Message Pending quickly flashed up. Pressed RMS: Will whoever has thoughtlessly removed the edited script of KAFKA’S MOTORBIKE from my desk PLEASE have the decency to return it immediately.

Diane

Aargh. After that: zilch.

Noon. Oh God. Daniel has not replied. Must be furious. Maybe he was being serious about the skirt. Oh God oh God. Have been seduced by informality of messaging medium into being impertinent to boss.

12:10. Maybe he has not got it yet. If only could get message back. Think will go for walk and see if can somehow go into Daniel’s office and erase it.

12:15. Hah. All explained. He is in meeting with Simon from Marketing. He gave me a look when walked past. Aha. Ahahahaha. Message Pending:

Message Jones

If walking past office was attempt to demonstrate presence of skirt can only say that it has failed parlously. Skirt is indisputably absent. Is skirt off sick?

Cleave

Message Pending then flashed up again–immediately.

Message Jones

If skirt is indeed sick, please look into how many days sick leave skirt has taken in previous twelvemonth. Spasmodic nature of recent skirt attendance suggests malingering.

Cleave

Just sending back:

Message Cleave

Skirt is demonstrably neither sick nor abscent. Appalled by management’s blatently sizist attitude to skirt. Obsessive interest in skirt suggests management sick rather than skirt.

Jones

Hmm. Think will cross last bit out as contains mild accusation of sexual harassment whereas v. much enjoying being sexually harassed by Daniel Cleaver.

Aaargh. Perpetua just walked past and started reading over shoulder. Just managed to press Alt Screen in nick of time but big mistake as merely put CV back up on screen.

“Do let me know when you’ve finished reading, won’t you?” said Perpetua, with a nasty smirk. “I’d hate to feel you were being underused.”

The second she was safely back on the phone–“I mean frankly, Mr. Birkett, what is the point in putting three to four bedrooms when it is going to be obvious the second we appear that bedroom four is an airing cupboard?”–I got back to work. This is what I am about to send.

Message Cleave

Skirt is demonstrably neither sick nor abscent. Appalled by management’s blatently sizist attitude to skirt. Considering appeal to industrial tribunal, tabloids, etc.

Jones

Oh dear. This was return message.

Message Jones

Absent, Jones, not abscent. Blatantly, not blatently. Please attempt to acquire at least perfunctory grasp of spelling. Though by no means trying to suggest language fixed rather than constantly adapting, fluctuating tool of communication (cf Hoenigswald) computer spell check might help.

Cleave

Was just feeling crestfallen when Daniel walked past with Simon from Marketing and shot a very sexy look at my skirt with one eyebrow raised. Love the lovely computer messaging. Must work on spelling, though. After all, have degree in English.

Friday 6 January

5:45 p.m. Could not be more joyous. Computer messaging re. presence or otherwise of skirt continued obsessively all afternoon. Cannot imagine respected boss did stroke of work. Weird scenario with Perpetua (penultimate boss), since knew I was messaging and v. angry, but fact that was messaging ultimate boss gave self conflicting feelings of loyalty–distinctly unlevel playing field where anyone with ounce of sense would say ultimate boss should hold sway.

Last message read:

Message Jones

Wish to send bouquet to ailing skirt over weekend. Please supply home contact no asap as cannot, for obvious reasons, rely on given spelling of “Jones” to search in file.

Cleave

Yesssss! Yessssss! Daniel Cleaver wants my phone no. Am marvelous. Am irresistible Sex Goddess. Hurrah!

Sunday 8 January

128 lbs. (v. bloody g. but what is point?), alcohol units 2 (excellent), cigarettes 7, calories 3100 (poor). 2 p.m. Oh God, why am I so unattractive? Cannot believe I convinced myself I was keeping the entire weekend free to work when in fact I was on permanent date-with-Daniel standby. Hideous, wasted two days glaring psychopathically at the phone, and eating things. Why hasn’t he rung? Why? What’s wrong with me? Why ask for my phone number if he wasn’t going to ring, and if he was going to ring surely he would do it over the weekend? Must center myself more. Will ask Jude about appropriate self-help book, possible Eastern-religion-based.

8 p.m. Phone call alert, which turned out to be just Tom, asking if there was any telephonic progress. Tom, who has taken, unflatteringly, to calling himself a hag-fag, has been sweetly supportive about the Daniel crisis. Tom has a theory that homosexuals and single women in their thirties have natural bonding: both being accustomed to disappointing their parents and being treated as freaks by society. He indulged me while I obsessed to him about my unattractiveness crisis–precipitated, as I told him, first by bloody Mark Darcy then by bloody Daniel at which point he said, I must say not particularly helpfully, “Mark Darcy? But isn’t he that famous lawyer–the human-rights guy?”

Hmmm. Well, anyway. What about my human right not to have to wander round with fearsome unattractiveness hangup?

US