Editing Helen Fielding (section)

==Biography==
Fielding grew up in [[Morley, West Yorkshire]], a textile town on the outskirts of [[Leeds]] in the north of England. Her father was [[managing director]] of a textile factory, next door to the family home, that produced cloth for miners' [[donkey jacket]]s. He died in 1982 and her mother, Nellie, remained in Yorkshire, dying in 2021.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Helen Fielding {{!}} Biography, Books and Facts |url=https://www.famousauthors.org/helen-fielding |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=www.famousauthors.org}}</ref>

Fielding attended [[Wakefield Girls' High School]], one of the [[Grammar School]]s in the Wakefield Grammar School Foundation. She has three siblings.

Fielding read English at [[St Anne's College, Oxford]] and was part of the Oxford revue at the 1978 [[Edinburgh Festival]].

Fielding began work at the [[BBC]] in 1979 as a regional researcher on the news magazine ''[[Nationwide (TV programme)|Nationwide]]''. She progressed to working as a [[Unit production manager|production manager]] and director on various entertainment shows. In 1985, Fielding produced and directed a live satellite broadcast from a [[refugee camp]] in Eastern [[Sudan]] for the launch of ''[[Comic Relief]]''. She also wrote and produced documentaries in Africa for the first two ''Comic Relief'' fundraising broadcasts. In 1989, she was a researcher for an edition of the [[Thames TV]] ''[[This Week (ITV TV series)|This Week]]'' series "Where Hunger is a Weapon" about the [[Second Sudanese Civil War|Southern Sudan rebel war]]. These experiences formed the basis for her [[debut novel]], ''[[Cause Celeb]]''.

From 1990 to 1999, she worked as a [[journalist]] and columnist on several national newspapers, including ''[[The Sunday Times]]'', ''[[The Independent]]'' and ''[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]''. Her best-known work, ''[[Bridget Jones's Diary (novel)|Bridget Jones's Diary]]'', began its life as an unattributed column in ''[[The Independent]]'' in 1995. The success of the column led to four novels and four film adaptations. Fielding was part of the screenwriting team for all four.