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.

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.