In 1996, when the book was first published, I’d just moved to Scotland, studying and working at the University of Stirling. I was living in a student flat with a corner room over-looking a roundabout. I set the smoke alarms off in the kitchen, burning toast, and the fire bridge arrived not long later. I got used to short winter days. I bought a bicycle. I passed my driving test and joined a netball team. I listened to the Olympic Games from Atlanta on the radio in my office, sometimes late into the night.

Like Bridget down in London, I was on a very limited budget. But, unlike Bridget, I didn’t keep a diary. There are no Facebook posts to remind me of events, parties, adventures (although I think I signed up for Friends Reunited). There are probably envelopes filled with photos developed at Boots, but I’m not sure where they are. A box in the attic maybe?

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Fast-forward to 1999, when the second Bridget Jones’ book was published. I was just coming to the end of my time in Scotland, my thesis almost-written. That was the year of my first big solo adventure – whilst Bridget Jones was getting arrested in Thailand, I was backpacking round Malaysia and Singapore. The journals from that trip are probably the closest I’ve every got to diary-writing. They spread to three volumes. I captured details of all the food I tried (including a lot nasi goreng and beef rendang as I discovered the joy of food courts), the places I visited (Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Penang), and all my adventures (including afternoon tea at Raffles and snorkelling at Turtle Island). There was the occasional mis-adventure too – including getting lost in the Cameron Highlands – but not on a par with Bridget.

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By the time the first book was turned into a film in 2001, I had moved from Scotland to London and, like Bridget, was working at my first ‘proper job’ in the big city. I remember watching the film and thinking Bridget’s life in London didn’t look too much like mine. I’d only just got my first mobile phone – a Nokia brick obviously. I went almost everywhere by bus – the 19, 38 and 73 routes took me almost everywhere I needed to go. I discovered the tunnel under the Thames to Greenwich. Borough Market and Gabriel’s Wharf on the South Bank were my favourite places for weekend snacks. I went to the ballet at Saddlers Wells and exhibitions at the Royal Academy. I could spend hours in the bookshops on Charing Cross Road. I I took a lot of photos and compiled them into albums.

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I loved London-life for those few years, and was still there when the second film came out in 2004. There were plenty of after-work drinks – Grand Central on Great Eastern Street became our favourite haunt for a bowl of nachos and a bottle of wine for £9. I packed my backpack again and went via Hong Kong to New Zealand. My mis-adventures were still not on a par with Bridget though – slipping over into a stream on a Franz Josef Glacier and getting caught in the rain at Abel Tasman National Park. But it was still way before I could post about it on Instagram.

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Watching the latest film and going back to the original book was a chance to wallow in nostalgia for a little while – a lot has changed since 1996!

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52 for 52 in 2025 #11 – weekly blogs in 2025 inspired by the books I’m reading.