Cause Celeb

Written by Helen Fielding

Narrated by Morwenna Banks

Disillusioned by her glitzy life in London and her desirable but cruel TV-presenter boyfriend, Rosie Richardson chucks it all in and spends four years running a refugee camp in Africa. Then famine strikes in a nearby province and an influx of starving refugees threatens to overwhelm the camp. Frustrated by the cautious response of the aid agencies, Rosie decides on a drastic short-term solution. She returns to London, breaks back into the celebrity circuit, and brings the celebs out to Africa for a star-studded TV emergency appeal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Nov 17, 2006
• ISBN: 9780230528451

Helen Fielding

Helen Fielding was born in Yorkshire. She worked for many years in London as a newspaper and TV journalist, travelling as wildly and as often as possible to Africa, India and Central America. She is the author of Cause Celeb, Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. She co-wrote the screenplays for the movies of Bridget Jones's Diary and The Edge of Reason, starring Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant. She now works full-time as a novelist and screenwriter and lives in London and Los Angeles.

Reviews for Cause Celeb

[jayne_charles_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is gutsily written, and highly informative when it comes to the ins and outs of running a refugee camp, and the difficulty of raising awareness and money when people aren’t seen to be “starving enough”. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that tackles the subject with quite such zeal. It was an eye-opener. And yet juxtaposed with the storyline back in London, where the narrator gets involved in an emotionally abusive relationship with a media personality and rubs noses with all sorts of flamboyant (and almost universally dislikeable) slebs, sits uncomfortably alongside it. Both were well written, but despite the fact that having the celebs come over and support an emergency appeal was a key part of the novel, the two strands of the story felt horribly jarring. Maybe it’s significant that there is a nostalgic feel to the London sections with the yuppie culture (at its height when the novel came out), and that only recently have questions started to be seriously posed about “white saviours” and the focus on celebrities by organisations like Comic Relief. Either way, an informative read but one that never felt quite like a rounded whole.

[wareagle78 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting book where famine relief work is juxtapositioned with true chick lit episodes.

[fireandice_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My personal opinion is that Fielding's best work was Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, but this novel did offer an interesting perspective on the humanitarian crisis in Africa during the 1980's. If you've never read any of her other books, I'd suggest the Bridget books, but if you have and you like her style...go for it.

[melydia_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Rosie Richardson works at a refugee camp in Nambula, Africa, where she's been for the last four years after breaking off a toxic relationship with the famous television man Oliver Merchant in London. It took me a while to get into this book, as it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a serious look at starvation in the Third World, or Bridget Jones Goes to Africa (yes, I know it was written before Bridget Jones's Diary, but you get my drift). Some parts were very funny, and others made me feel like Fielding was trying to browbeat me into donating to charity. At first it stirred my compassion, but by the end it felt more like a lecture than a story. Fielding also relied a bit too heavily on dialect for differentiation, turning her characters into charicatures. Still, there was a fair bit of humor and reasonably engrossing drama; this was certainly not a bad first novel, but I can understand why Bridget Jones is so much more popular.

[dilldill · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was entertaining and thought provoking. Not just your average chick lit. As someone who has visited a third world country intending to "help", it really hit home.

[vfranklyn_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a good book. It was darker than I expected, with serious subject matter infiltrating the author's usual absurd take on British social situations.

[ellevee_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Boring, stupid, trying to be clever and coming out obnoxious. Celebrities are spoiled? Who knew?! Avoid this, and stick with Bridget.

[herschelian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is Helen Fielding's first book, written ages before Bridget Jones. She worked in BBC TV and knows whereof she speaks, this book really raises some issues about celebrities and causes. A wry, satirical look at the whole attitude to charity for the 3rd world, and written long before Bono, Angelina Jolie, Madonna et al had jetted off to improve their "caring" quotient and make themselves feel good.

[daisydaisydaisy_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Much much better than the Bridget Jones books. This seemed more believable, more human and thought-provoking. Highly recommended.

[coolcat_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

It's so very different from her Bridget Jones' offerings. I found it a tedious read.