Helen Fielding, writer and journalist, is best known for creating Bridget Jones, who first appeared in a newspaper column in the Independent in 1995, in the form of a diary detailing the single 30-something’s exploits in London as she tried to make sense of life and love. The column soon acquired a wider following, and Helen turned Bridget’s story into a best-selling book the following year.

Born in 1958, Helen grew up in Yorkshire with an older sister and two younger brothers. Her father was a manager at the textile mill next door to where they lived.
She read English at Oxford where she became friends with Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson. After graduating, she became a BBC trainee, travelling to Africa for Comic Relief. She later made documentaries for Thames TV before moving into print journalism.

To date, Helen has written four Bridget Jones novels, three of which have been turned into feature films starring Renée Zellweger. She spent a decade in Los Angeles at the start of the new millennium and had two children with Kevin Curran, who was a scriptwriter for The Simpsons. She now lives in London.

DISC ONE: Fly Me to the Moon by Julie London
DISC TWO: The Windmills of Your Mind by Noel Harrison
DISC THREE: It Must Be Love by Madness
DISC FOUR: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30, composed by Sergei Rachmaninov, conducted by Valery Gergiev and performed by Denis Matsuev (piano) and Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra
DISC FIVE: La Isla Bonita by Madonna
DISC SIX: I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor
DISC SEVEN: I’ve Got the World on a String by Frank Sinatra
DISC EIGHT: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered by Stan Getz & The Oscar Peterson Trio

BOOK CHOICE: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
LUXURY ITEM: A magical tree
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: It Must Be Love by Madness

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale