Bridget Jones's Diary, by Helen Fielding (Picador, £5.99 in UK)

According to her diary Bridget Jones is a fat thirty something with a dead-end job, naff parents, no boyfriend and no style. In fact, of course, she's the woman with everything: car, flat, video, Glossies bra and pants set, feisty friends of various political hues, a mother in television and a brilliant line in self-deprecating put-downs. The diary's de- nouement is obvious from the moment she meets the horribly rich and conveniently divorced Mark Darcy on page 13 - "It struck me as pretty ridiculous to be called Mr Darcy and to stand on your own looking snooty at a party" - but the contortions of the intervening pages are cleverly manipulated and undeniably hilarious. A.W.