- The fourth Bridget Jones movie is set to hit our screens next month
- But did you know that the films are adapted from a series of books?
- Here’s the correct order to read the Bridget Jones novels in
Bridget Jones will be returning to the big screen on February 14 – and we can hardly wait.
With Renée Zellweger set to play the lovable character once more, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy will also star Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Leo Woodall and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
While fans may be clued up with the rest of the Bridget movies, what they may not realize is that the franchise was first a book series, written by Helen Fielding.
And if you want to be fully clued up on the chronological ins and outs of Bridget’s life before the next movie hits theaters, here’s the order to read the novels in.
Warning, contains spoilers!
Bridget Jones’s Diary
Release date: 1996
Published in 1996 and becoming an instant international bestseller, Bridget Jones’s Diary is written in the form of a personal diary – but what many will not know is that the book evolved from Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary columns in the UK newspapers, The Independent and The Daily Telegraph.
Following Bridget’s life over the course of a year, it sees her in two romantic relationships – the first with her charming and handsome boss Daniel Cleaver; and the second with family friend and human rights barrister Mark Darcy.
Of course, a single woman in her thirties is nothing without her best friends – and Bridget has pals Shazzer, Jude and Tom to lean on as she navigates her chaotic love life… and a change in career.
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
Published in: 1998
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is the second book in the beloved series.
Now working as a TV host and dating Mark Darcy, Bridget begins to feel jealous and paranoid about the time Mark spends with his younger, attractive co-worker, Rebecca.
After their eventual break-up, Bridget accepts a freelance assignment in Rome, before joining her friend Shazzer on holiday in Thailand.
Of course, chaos ensues in South East Asia – involving charming men on planes, stolen money and many misunderstandings!
Bridget Jones’s Baby: The Diaries
Published in: 2016
This is where new Bridget fans may slip up – as although Bridget Jones’s Baby: The Diaries was published last in the series, chronologically, it should actually be the third book you read.
While it differs slightly from the movie, the novel follows Bridget accidentally falling pregnant and not knowing who the father is.
And the two candidates could only be, of course, Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver.
Mediating the hatred the two men have towards each other – while also hurtling towards the baby deadline! – the comedy explores the havoc, pregnancy and childbirth in Jones’s familiar voice.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
Published in: 2013
The fourth book in the series – and what viewers will be able to watch in theaters from Valentine’s Day – Mad About The Boy follows Bridget as she grapples with single motherhood in the wake of Mark Darcy’s death.
Set nearly 20 years on from the first novel, Bridget now contending with the internet, texting and Botox.
Bridget returns to the much-changed dating scene – and is just as characteristically hapless and clumsy as she was pre-marriage and children.
