It chronicles the life of Bridget Jones, a thirtysomething singleton woman living in London, surrounded by a 'surrogate family' of friends as she tries to make sense of life and love in the 90s. Often hysterically funny, the column accurately lampooned the obsessions of women's magazines such as Cosmopolitan and wider societal trends in Britain at the time. The columns were fixed up into a novel in 1996. A sequel, The Edge of Reason, followed in 1999.

The movie starred Renee Zellweger as Bridget, Hugh Grant as the caddish Daniel Cleaver and Colin Firth as Bridget's 'true love' Mark Darcy. Before the film came out a considerable amount of controversy surrounded the casting of the American Zellweger as what some saw as a quintessentially British heroine: however, her performance is widely considered to be of a high standard. Also notable is the decision to cast Colin Firth as Darcy, since he played the 'real' Mr Darcy in the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Bridget interviews the actor himself in the second book!