Anna Rhodes

F YOU think Bridget Jones is no longer relevant, you have forgotten what she stands for.

would not profess myself an expert on many things – but when it comes to Bridget Jones, I know the life of the fictional character inside and out.

Helen Fielding’s 1995 creation of Bridget, serialised in The Independent, marked the moment when British women were finally offered a truly relatable character.

Bridget remains relevant even today. The topics that she ponders and the anxieties she navigates in Bridget Jones’s Diary,The Edge of Reason and Mad About The Boy are things we’ve all been stumped by – career troubles, relationship troubles, the intersection of career and relationship troubles (aka “Is it sensible to bang my flirty boss?”), financial troubles, getting too pissed on a Wednesday night troubles…

Her relationships with men are supposedly the centrepiece of the novels (and films), but what always struck me the most was her construction of an “urban family”. While men come and go (or get killed off – RIP Mark Darcy), her friends and their terrible advice are the real constant.

This is even more pertinent this year, considering that those of us in our twenties and thirties find it near impossible to own property, are even more financially unstable, and have to move a long way from our home towns to find work.

The problems that Bridget faced in the 1990s are amplified

Iin this day and age – relationship problems are more complicated because of online dating apps, people’s financial situations are abysmal because of rising rents