Maybe there are just some men like that in the world, I thought. Men who have to be in charge, who have to punish those who awaken feelings in them which they cannot control. Men who will lure you with tenderness till you believe that you are safe then slap you down. Men whom it is impossible for anyone to love without losing their dignity. Men who have to damage those who love them most. But, then, I had fallen on love with one, so what did that make me?

Fielding rejected this idea as too embarrassing[citation needed] and exposing and offered instead to create an imaginary exaggerated comic character. She studied English at St Anne's College Oxford and was part of the Oxford revue at the 1978 Edinburgh Festival forming a continuing friendship with a group of comic performers and writers including Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson. Directed by Sharon McGuire.

The two films of the same name have achieved worldwide success. Bridget Jones’s Diary was named as one of the ten novels that best defined the 20th century in a survey conducted by The Guardian newspaper.