I don’t know what came first, the book or the film. Early scripts were rejected by Hugh Grant, which was apparently why he got written out and replaced by a sexy dotcom billionnaire. I’m wondering if it was written between script drafts (if so, they should have rewritten and republished it to match the film).

Either way, the film was excellent. The book is not. Whereas in the film it’s Mark Darcy vs the sexy billionaire, in the book it’s Mark Darcy vs crappy sleazy old Daniel Cleaver, whom we and Bridget are long over. So there’s no real romantic tension or mystery, because you know that there’s no way the author would ever let it be Cleaver’s baby.

Nor at any  point do we ever hold any hope that Daniel is the father. Whereas in the film there are quite a few “what if?” moments, as Patrick Dempsey’s character is so handsome and nice. You want it to be Mark/Colin Firth, but you secretly wouldn’t totally mind if it was Patrick.

Even side events, like Glastonbury – hilariously funny in the film – and Bridget’s mother standing for election, and the crazy TV interviews, are either absent in the book or very inferior.

Either way, this is okay for Bridget Jones fans, but will massively disappoint those who loved the film and bought this book afterwards.