The first Bridget Jones novel in 14 years announced

The first Bridget Jones novel in 14 years will be released in October with the character still seemingly prone to mishaps and this time she has to deal with the added complications of social media.

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, which is set to be released on October 10, will represent "a totally new phase in Bridget's life" according to publishers.

The series, written by Helen Fielding, originally started as a weekly column in The Independent in 1995 before the 1996 release of Bridget Jones's Diary and the sequel The Edge Of Reason released in 1999.

The character previously filled her diary with tales of unsuccessful efforts to find love, while measuring her life in the amount of cigarettes she smoked, units of alcohol she drank and number of calories she lost or gained.

An extract from the third installment released by publishers reveals that the cult character is still prone to mishaps - even more so in a digital age.

After sending a text message she writes:

"You see, this is the trouble with the modern world. If it was the days of letter-writing, I would never even have started to find his address, a pen, a piece of paper, an envelope, a stamp and gone outside at 11.30pm to find a postbox.

A text is gone at the brush of a fingertip, like a nuclear bomb or Exocet missile. Dating Rule No 1: Do not text when drunk."

A statement from publishers Jonathan Cape said:

The books have sold more than 15 million copies in 40 different countries, while Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant have all starred in the successful film adaptions.

Dan Franklin, the publishing director of Jonathan Cape, paid tribute to author Helen Fielding for giving a "voice to a generation of young women".

However any hopes fans had of another film being released were dashed by Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth, who played Mark Darcy.