Devoured this- so much warmth and wittiness throughout the story - this was her first novel before the Bridget Jones diary books and imo this has a lot more heart - really enjoyed it - bargain for 99c at the charity shop

Not my usual genre and this was a book of two halves for me. The celebrity stuff with the annoying characters and endless drinks and parties I didn’t enjoy. Not one character you could feel empathy for. The other part of the story is set in the Refugee camps in Nambula, Africa. This part is interesting and thought provoking. The story is all a bit Band Aid/Live Aid-esq. a bit predictable in outcome but at least some of it was informative.

Good light reading

Again, I don't think I enjoyed this book as much as other people. It's about a woman, Rosie Richardson, who has a job in PR that brings her into contact with celebrities. She starts a doomed love affair with a selfish, narcissistic tv presenter who treats her appallingly. In a bit of a volte face, she decides to go and work in a refugee camp in Africa. After a couple of years there, a famine by locusts is imminent, but none of the large aid agencies believe the admittedly slight evidence of this impending catastrophe. Rosie decides to make a last ditch attempt to go back to London and drum up her celeb chums to raise money. The first half of the book was entertaining and believable. The camp setting less so, and the process of convincing celebs and getting them to Africa was frankly tedious. The writing reminded me a bit of Jilly Cooper at times (not a bad thing) but the subject matter was a bit jarring for that approach.

This wasn't a bad book,but it was no "Bridget Jones's Diary".A young woman who is a publicist goes through a bad time in her romantic relationship and decides to go off to Africa to work with refugees and help with famine relief.She uses her skills as a publicist to put something together and meets a bunch of wacky people along the way.It takes you into how that is done and the harsh realities that go along with trying to help refugees in need of food,shelter,and medical.She learns that there are more important things than herself and her relationship problems.Rosie learns what she is truly capable of and what really matters.It lags a little,but it wasn't that bad a book.You find little spots of humor here and there. It is worthy of a try.

After a painful breakup, London PR girl Rosie Richardson goes out to work in an African refugee camp in the famine crisis of the 1980s.

I almost stopped reading after chapter one because I couldn's stand empty-headed Rosie in her silly London life. I persisted because reviews said the book gets better, and it does. Rosie is like a different person in Africa, and the detail of conditions in the camp was eye-opening. Helen Fielding was clearly writing from experience, and I loved those parts.

I enjoyed this so much. If you like the flightiness of Bridget Jones with the a little more depth. This is for you. Still chick lit so don’t go analyzing this to death. Just enjoy the flight.

LOVE Helen Fielding—— usually. This was just stupid! On so many levels. Don’t waste your time on this one.

Mixed feelings on this one. Parts were very good and touching while others were crass and unnecessary.

In "Cause Celeb" Fielding satirizes the pretentiousness of celebrities, the not-always pure motives of humanitarians, the poetical idiosyncrasies of Africans, the tangled and futile politics of foreign aid, and the stupidity of certain women when it comes to relationships.

I enjoy Fielding's novels even though I can never manage to relate to her female protagonists, who tend to be shallow women who lack self-respect, initially have bad taste in men, readily engage in casual sex, and play relationship games, only to wonder why they suffer so much angst. I imagine Fielding is satirizing the modern, secular single woman with such characters, but somehow they always manage to end up with a good man despite never fully, completely reforming their approach to relationships.

In some ways, "Cause Celeb" is a better satire than Fielding's other books: it is certainly more raw and biting, and that is perhaps why it is not as popular as her lighter works, but that is what makes me more impressed by it. As a satire, however, it is only half formed. While half the book has that clever, biting edge, the other half is all straightforward seriousness. That's not necessarily bad, but it's a conflation of genres that jars a little. In the straightforward parts, she gets a bit heavy-handedly political at times, and although there is certainly some poetry in the telling, and some moving moments, at times the story also drags a bit, and, at other times, the message comes at the reader like a two-by-four.

I've quoted a few of my favorite lines from the book below, some satirical, and some non-ironic:

"The relationship seesaw: What would you do if it was perfectly balanced? I thought...Much better to be slightly at a disadvantage; so much more fun that way…Much better to have those passionate, tantalizing thrills than endless boring TV suppers, sitting snuggled on the sofa in jeans and an old cardi, not caring what you looked like because inside you were so sure he loved you just for you."

"As if love was something you earned like a merit star, and if I followed every single instruction in every single magazine that month…made my own pasta, studied advanced sexual gymnastics, never crowded him…Oliver might decide he was in love with me."

On the protagonists first trip to Africans: "I was shocked when I watched Live Aid…But that was a safe breed of shock…This [however:] was the shock of feeling for the first time that the world had no safety in it, that it was not governed by justice, and that nobody who could be trusted was in control. It was the shame of feeling that I shared responsibility for this horror and of breaking down and ceasing to function…"

On adjusting to ordinary western, upper class life after her initial, powerfully unsettling experience in Africa: "Quickly I grew less deranged. I had begun the process of calming down, assimilating and compromising, which is necessary to live comfortably in the world as it is, and probably is why its imbalance never changes."

On the fact that Africans, unlike Westerners, didn't care if their prosthetic limb looked real: "As long as the limb worked, they just wanted to get on with their lives. It wasn't something they bothered to disguise. Maybe this was because of the war and the proliferation of mines. I suspect it had more to do with what they valued in each other."

This book was not at all what I expected. When I picked up this Helen Fielding book at a used book sale, I figured I would be getting another semi-silly, light, romantic read from her, but it turned out to deal with much more heavy issues including famine and emotional abuse. It was well done for the most part and I enjoyed the book.

This book is about Rosie, who, after finally breaking up with her emotionally abusive boyfriend, Oliver, goes to do relief work in Africa. Because the UN isn't sending needed supplies, the refugee camp is running out of food. Rosie has to return to London and try to get the celebrities she used to associate with to come to Africa and do a benefit.

What really kept me reading the book is that I really liked and empathised with Rosie. She seemed like a good person, and I could relate to her belief that she could change Oliver. Some of the scenes of their arguments were really realistic. The book was also quite amusing in parts. The London social scene was hilarious. The spoofing of celebrity was also quite humourous. Fielding has a very engaging style that allowed me to stay interested in the story. She makes some very good points about celebrity without being totally preachy.

I did wish that the celebrities had spent more time in Africa. The last third of the book was actually the best, when the celebrities were planning the benefit. I thought some of the more political stuff in the middle of the book dragged a bit.

Despite the fact that the book dragged in places, it was overall a very enjoyable read. Fielding's an excellent writer, and the story rings true to life. Definitely worth the read!!