Bridget Jones is back on Monday with the publication of Helen Fielding's Mad About the Boy and things have changed for Bridge since the days of drinking in Quo Vadis in the 1990s: she has an iPhone now, Nicole Farhi has gone into administration and Hoxton has become a place to party. In the time since the last novel was published, she has, according to the extracts released so far, had two kids with quite fashionable names (Billy and Mabel), lost the love of her life, Mark Darcy (we know it's sad but there was really no way to move the plot on while he was still alive), discovered online shopping (emails from ASOS flood her overflowing inbox) and got a whole new set of role models. 

Compare and contrast Bridget's moodboards from 1996 and 2013: from hapless 30-something to hapless 50-something.

1996, wears short skirts (for flirting purposes),  drinks white wine (when drowning sorrows), eats at department store restaurants (lovely Harvey Nichols, mmm), aspires to be like Jane Seymour when she grows up (v.g. role model). 

In 1996, Bridget Jones was famously a fan of the short tight black skirt, so much so that she prompted her boss and object of affection, Daniel Cleaver, to message her flirtatiously: 'Skirt is indisputably absent. Is skirt off sick?'. In 1996, Bridget bought her kitten heels at Pied A Terre, she aspired to shop at Joseph and Nicole Farhi, where one could pick up a smart trouser suit, the type that one of Bridget's more high-brow role models, biographer Kathleen Tynan, might have worn, but she often found herself struggling with tiny but more affordable dresses in Miss Selfridge instead. When discussing emotional f*ckwits with urban family, she ate at Quo Vadis or Harvey Nichols Fifth Floor. When at home alone, she drank bottles of Chardonnay and wore a 'cardigan with egg on it'.    

2013, wears thigh-high YSL boots (borrowed from Talitha, worried they are bit prostitute-y), drinks mojitos (oh dear), parties in Hoxton (stairs smell of wee there), aspires to have composure of Stella McCartney (excellent school run style).   

In 2013, Bridget Jones is 51 and a single mother who wears the same three things all the time but is resolving to 'put together fashionable 'looks' based on celebrities at airports'. She shops at ASOS but borrows sexy short tunics and thigh-high boots for rare nights out. She would like to have a face like Cheryl Cole or Kate Moss and the style and motherly grace of Claudia Schiffer. Living in Queen's Park, she occasionally leaves Billy and Mabel with their godfather, Daniel Cleaver, and travels to Hackney in a taxi where she meets lovely toyboys, whom she snogs. She endeavours to 'get on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp instead of feeling old and out of it'. Will poss avoid Plenty of Fish though. And oh God, she misses Mark Darcy.