Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy to be published on October 10

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, Helen Fielding’s first novel in 14 years, is to be published later this year.

The novel is Helen Fielding’s third about the hapless singleton, following Bridget Jones’s Diary, which was published in 1996, and sequel The Edge Of Reason in 1999.

The books sold more than 15 million copies in 40 countries and were adapted for the movies starring Renee Zellweger in the lead role, Colin Firth as Mark Darcy and Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver.

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, which will be published on October 10, is set in present day London and ‘represents a totally new phase in Bridget’s life’.

An extract released by publishers showed that Bridget Jones is still prone to mishaps.

She writes after sending a text message: “You see, this is the trouble with the modern world. If it was the days of letter-writing, I would never even have started to find his address, a pen, a piece of paper, an envelope, a stamp and gone outside at 11.30 p.m. to find a postbox.

“A text is gone at the brush of a fingertip, like a nuclear bomb or Exocet missile. Dating Rule No 1: Do not text when drunk.”

A statement from publishers Jonathan Cape said: “Bridget is older, she is still keeping a diary, but she is also immersed in texting and experimenting with social media, with an emphasis on <<social!>>.”

Jonathan Cape publishing director Dan Franklin said: “As a comic writer, Helen is without equal. Over 15 years ago she gave a voice to a generation of young women with the original Bridget book.

“Now they’ve grown up and she’s doing it again….this time with all the joys and complications of social media.”

Bridget Jones, who filled the pages of her diary with her failed efforts to find love and measured her life in the amount of cigarettes she smoked, units of alcohol she drank and number of calories she lost or gained, started life as a weekly column in The Independent in 1995.

Best-selling English author Helen Fielding recently wrote that the dating scene had become even more difficult for women thanks to the advent of email, Twitter, Facebook and texting.

Writing in the margins of her novel Bridget Jones’ Diary for a charity book sale, she said that she thought that finding a partner is “so much worse now”.

Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth recently dashed hopes that a third Bridget Jones film would be hitting the big-screen soon.

“Unfortunately, it might be a bit of a long wait. I wouldn’t say that it’s completely dead in the water, but the way it’s going you might be seeing Bridget Jones’ granddaughter’s story being told by the time we get there,” he quipped.