Chick-lit fans rejoice! On Tuesday, it was announced that British author Helen Fielding will be publishing a new Bridget Jones Diary book in November. Alfred A. Knopf will publish the book, which will surely follow the success of Fielding's first two Bridget Jones installments, in the U.S. in the fall.
"Few writers can rival Helen Fielding when it comes to fully capturing the modern woman," Knopf Chairman and Editor in Chief Sonny Mehta said in a press release. "Her writing is both funny and heartfelt, and her observations about life are piercing and mordantly rendered. I have been waiting a long time to see what's next for Bridget Jones, and I am beyond thrilled that she's back."
Author Fielding added, "My life has moved on and Bridget's will move on, too." The third installment will be set in present-day London, the press release stated, with Bridget being in a later part of her life. Fielding continued, "I hope people will have as much fun reading it, as I am writing it."
Fielding's first Bridget Jones book, Bridget Jones' Diary, was published in 1996 and became an international bestseller, eventually being adapted to film with U.S. actress Renee Zellweger and British actors Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. The book's sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, was published in 1999 and also got the Hollywood treatment with much of the cast from the first film. According to the BBC, both books sold over 15 million copies and were published in more than 40 countries worldwide.
The BBC also reported that another film sequel, "Bridget Jones' Baby," by Working Title Films is schedule for release sometime in 2013.
Fielding's Bridget Jones began as a weekly newspaper column in the British publication The Independent in 1995.