Bridget Jones back in new diary

Renee Zellweger played Bridget Jones in two hit films

Bridget Jones, the fictional single woman who became a cultural icon, has returned in the newspaper column where she started her life a decade ago.

Author Helen Fielding has revived her creation in The Independent newspaper, starting a new weekly diary.

Bridget is still struggling with life, love and calories, but with the added worries of bombs and advancing age.

Ms Fielding said it was "definitely a different chapter in her life" but Bridget was "still the same person".

The original diary started in The Independent in 1995 and went on to become two best-selling books and two hit films starring Renee Zellweger.

She's about to set off in another direction Helen Fielding Bridget Jones author

This is the first time Bridget has aired her views since the second book, The Edge of Reason, was published more than five years ago.

Thursday's column sees her still romantically tangled up with Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver and stressing about being childless.

She is also getting to grips with the attacks on London, saying she is proud of how well she is "personally handling the crisis".

Asked what would happen to her character, Fielding told BBC One's Breakfast: "I'm not entirely sure because I haven't written it yet.

"But I can say that it's definitely a different chapter in her life, it's definitely a new thing, because I didn't want to write another book or another episode for the sake of it.

"She's still the same person, she hasn't really got it together, she hasn't stopped smoking, she hasn't stopped drinking, she's still on a diet, she's still got the same people in her life.

"But she's about to set off in another direction."