Gareth J. H. Sibson (born 1977) is an English writer and broadcaster. His debut novel, Single White Failure was a frank look at relationships in London. The book drew on his own experiences of dating in London and analysed the women of a generation inspired by Bridget Jones and Sex and the City . Before becoming a writer and broadcaster, Sibson practised as a lawyer in The City. He comments on a variety of social and legal issues.
Sibson originally hails from Holt, Norfolk, and continues to have strong ties to the county. Prior to university, Sibson was a Sir Peter Kirk scholar and remains actively involved with the Trust. He also worked as a pupil Attorney in Barbados at the Chambers of Mia Amor Mottley, head of the Barbados Labour Party. He went up to University College, Durham, to read law and later went on to qualify with the leading London law firm, Lovells. He specialised in property law but left private practice in 2005 to focus on his writing and broadcasting career.
At this time, Sibson was offered an apprenticeship with the enfant terrible of the journalist world, Toby Young ( How To Lose Friends & Alienate People ). During his time with Young, Sibson helped him stage the play Who’s The Daddy? , [1] a sex farce about the David Blunkett/Kimberley Quinn scandal and the "Sextator" affairs of Boris Johnson and Rod Liddle. It was named Best New Comedy at the 2006 Theatregoers' Choice Awards.
At the end of 2005, Sibson's debut novel, Single White Failure, was published. He wrote the real-life story because he felt men were misrepresented in contemporary fiction. It was a thinking man’s retort to chick Lit such as Bridget Jones and Sex and the City. He wanted to write about real women and the things they do in relationships, writing against the popular myths that he saw in the media and elsewhere.
At the same time, he began the internationally successful blog ChasingBridget.com – his satirical quest to track down the perfect Bridget Jones. 15,000 women a day were logging on, claiming to be the real Bridget, from Birmingham to Bangalore. Reports on Sibson appeared around the globe.
Sibson is a media commentator. He appears on TV and radio with credits including NBC's Today Programme, Sky One's Taste, UKTV Style's How To Find a Husband. He has written for the Daily Mail and The Sun online and is often asked to comment on stories by the likes of The Sunday Times . He is also the resident relationships expert at Colourful Radio. [2]
The Sunday Times dubbed Sibson "The Dr Dolittle of Relationships", [3] and The Evening Standard said, "If you've lost your faith in men he might just restore it." [4]
In 2008 and 2009, he opened the London Book Fair [5] with fellow writers Joanna Trollope and Adele Parks.
He appears on radio talking about the book world, relationships, the modern woman and gender issues.
In the past, he has been involved with various TV production companies as a presenter. Most recently he has been involved with the BBC in developing a legal affairs program.
Sibson lives in South London. He has a passion for Regency architecture. He spends part of his time working for charities such as the educational trust, The Sir Peter Kirk Fund. He is also a supporter of the women’s charity The Fawcett Society.
Naomi Rebekah Wolf is an American feminist author, journalist, and conspiracy theorist.
Chasing Amy is a 1997 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Kevin Smith and starring Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, and Jason Lee. The third film in Smith's View Askewniverse series, the film is about a male comic artist (Affleck) who falls in love with a lesbian (Adams), to the displeasure of his best friend (Lee).
Bridget Jones's Diary is a 1996 novel by Helen Fielding. Written in the form of a personal diary, the novel chronicles a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a thirty-something single working woman living in London. She writes about her career, self-image, vices, family, friends, and romantic relationships.
Colin Andrew Firth is an English actor and producer. Over his career he has been the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2011, Firth was appointed a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for his services to drama. That same year, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and appeared in Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2011.
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Bridget Louise Riley is an English painter known for her op art paintings. She lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France.
Jeremy James Anthony Gibson-Beadle MBE was an English television and radio presenter, writer and producer. From the 1980s to the late 1990s he was a regular face on British television, and in two years appeared in 50 weeks of the year.
Helen Fielding is a British journalist, novelist and screenwriter, best known as the creator of the fictional character Bridget Jones. Fielding’s first novel was set in a refugee camp in East Africa and she started writing Bridget Jones in an anonymous column in London’s Independent newspaper. This turned into an unexpected hit, leading to four Bridget Jones novels and three movies, with a fourth movie announced in April 2024 for release in 2025.
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Chick lit is a term used to describe a type of popular fiction targeted at women. Widely used in the 1990s and 2000s, the term has fallen out of fashion with publishers, while writers and critics have rejected its inherent sexism. Novels identified as chick lit typically address romantic relationships, female friendships, and workplace struggles in humorous and lighthearted ways. Typical protagonists are urban, heterosexual women in their late twenties and early thirties: the 1990s chick lit heroine represented an evolution of the traditional romantic heroine in her assertiveness, financial independence and enthusiasm for conspicuous consumption.
Bridget Rose Jones is a fictional character created by British writer Helen Fielding. Jones first appeared in Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary column in The Independent in 1995, which did not carry any byline. Thus, it seemed to be an actual personal diary chronicling the life of Jones as a thirtysomething single woman in London as she tries to make sense of life, love, and relationships with the help of a surrogate "urban family" of friends in the 1990s. The column was, in fact, a lampoon of women's obsession with love, marriage and romance as well as women's magazines such as Cosmopolitan and wider social trends in Britain at the time. Fielding published the novelisation of the column in 1996, followed by a sequel in 1999 called The Edge of Reason.
Chloe Atkinson is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Emmerdale, played by Amy Nuttall. She debuted on-screen during the episode airing on 4 December 2000. Nuttall quit the serial in order to pursue a singing career after performing at a football event.
Debbie Dingle is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Emmerdale, played by Charley Webb. Webb has taken maternity leave three times, with the first time being in 2010, and the second in 2016, with Debbie departing on 1 January 2016. She returned on 24 January 2017, and then went on maternity leave for a third time in 2019, with Debbie leaving for Scotland on 13 August 2019. She returned for a short stint on 25 December 2020, and made her final appearance on 11 February 2021.
Hardeep Singh Kohli is a British presenter, comedian, writer and director who has appeared on various radio and television programmes. Having moved to Scotland at a young age, he has had a long association with the arts in Scotland and is known more widely across the United Kingdom as a presenter on BBC television and radio, and on Channel 4. He was a finalist on Celebrity MasterChef in 2006 and a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother in 2018.
Tobias Jones is a British author, journalist, teacher and community-builder. He was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, and then worked at the London Review of Books and the Independent on Sunday. He has written various works of fiction and non-fiction, and appears regularly on British and Italian TV and Radio. He lives in Parma in Italy.
Charity Dingle is a fictional character from the British television soap opera Emmerdale, played by Emma Atkins. Suranne Jones originally auditioned for the role of Charity prior to Atkins being cast in the role. The actress began filming her first scenes in February 2000, and she made her first screen appearance as Charity during the episode broadcast on 30 March 2000. Actress Mica Proctor played a young Charity in a flashback episode about the character's past, which aired on 29 May 2018.
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Cambridge Papers has maintained a consistently high standard of Christian reflection on contemporary issues.
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