Fielding's new book

Helen Fielding, the British author of the best-selling Bridget Jones's Diary books that were made into successful films has written a new novel that will be released in November, her US publisher said recently. In the still untitled book, Fielding will continue to write in Bridget Jones' voice but will follow her in a later stage of her life in present-day London. "Few writers can rival Helen Fielding when it comes to fully capturing the modern woman," says Sonny Mehta, the chairman and editor in chief of Alfred A. Knopf, which will publish the book. Bridget Jones's Diary came out in 1996, and was followed by a sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, in 1999. The two novels sold more than 15 million copies, were published in 40 countries and adapted into films starring Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. "My life has moved on, and Bridget's will move on, too," Fielding says. "I hope people will have as much fun reading it, as I am writing it."

Children football

English soccer player Frank Lampard is using his experiences on the field and at home with his own family to carve out a new career - writing children's books. The 34-year-old midfielder, whose contract with London club Chelsea expires in June, has signed a deal with publisher Little, Brown Books for Young Readers to write five books for children aged 5 and above. The first book in the series of Frankie's Magic Football about a schoolboy called Frankie, his football-loving friends and pet dog Max will be called Frankie versus the Pirate Pillagers and released in June 2013. Lampard says he first had the idea for the books when reading to his children at home. "Sport and reading are two essentials for us at home, so I decided to make up my own football stories and adventures," says the England international, who joined Chelsea in 2001 and is the Premier League club's second highest goal-scorer. "The characters are loosely based on friends and team mates I've played with over the years."

Servants' perspective

A British author has written a book based on Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice but told from the servants' point of view. In Longbourn, which will be released later this year in the United States, writer Jo Baker focuses on a romance between the main characters, a newly arrived footman and a housemaid on the Bennet family estate. "While Longbourn brings to life a different side of the world Austen first created, I was impressed even more by the way this novel stands as a transporting, fully realized work of fiction in its own right," says Diane Coglianese, an editor at publisher Alfred K. Knopf. Baker describes the chaos downstairs among the Bennets' servants, the preparation for the lavish balls, the housekeeper's thoughts about the family patriarch and the tragedy of the Napoleonic wars. Baker, who was born and lives in Lancashire, England, has written other books, including Offcomer and The Mermaid's Child.

Hockey voters

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has penned a tome on the history of hockey for hockey-mad Canadian voters that will hit bookstores later this year, his publisher announced in early February. The as-yet-untitled book tells "the intriguing, little-known story of the origins of professional hockey, where strong personalities and philosophies battled to define not only how the game would be played on ice, but by whom", a statement says. Started during the 2006 election campaign that swept Harper's Conservatives to power, the book will be published by Simon & Schuster in Canada and the United States in November. Harper had worked on it between campaign stops, jotting down ideas on scraps of paper. Globe and Mail reporter Roy MacGregor was later enlisted to help create a "portrait of hockey at the turn of the 20th century" that includes the first quests for the Stanley Cup and the rise of professional hockey. "Writing this book has taught me a lot about hockey and a great deal more about Canada," Harper says.

- Reuters

(China Daily 02/19/2013 page19)