Helen Fielding

She created one of the most beloved and controversial female protagonists of the 1990s in the smoking, drinking, perpetually-dieting and man-obsessed Bridget Jones. However, Helen Fielding herself, an accomplished journalist and former television producer when she began penning Bridget's misadventures, is a far cry from her insecure alter-ego. While defending Bridget as a comic character in the tradition of silly, shallow men like Bertie Wooster, Fielding also cites Jane Austen as inspiration. Her follow-up to the bestselling Bridget Jones's Diary (1996), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (1999), was successful as well, and Fielding also worked on the screenplays for the film adaptations of both books.