By the Book

The creator of Bridget Jones, who grew up on Jane Austen and Jackie Collins, has no patience for “snobbery about escapist fiction.”

Eighteen books in (the latest is “Every Tom, Dick & Harry”), she still recalls an editor’s note urging more action: “Could someone here please pass the potatoes?”

It’s among the more playful matters on his mind in “Shattered,” a memoir of the injury that took away his ability to turn pages — but not his hunger to tell a story.

An adaptation of “Fatherland,” the best-selling novelist’s first solo work, “sets my teeth on edge,” he admits. His newest book, “Precipice,” is about a former British prime minister in love.

His new novel is titled after Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons,” he says, “given the theme of incomprehension between generations in that book.”

“I’m very comfortable with the level of ambition I have for my books,” says the ubiquitous BBC talk show host, who calls “Frankie” his “first happy romance.”

The author of “The Note” traces her “real obsession” to discovering “a slew of smart, gritty female sleuths who began to feel like friends.”

“I get real geek joy out of learning something new,” says the imprint’s vice president and publisher. She’s proud to have broadened the definition of a classic during her tenure.

“I’m like one of those deranged soldiers they find on some remote island still fighting a war that’s ended decades ago,” he says. “A Shimmering, Serrated Monster!” is his collection of comic fiction.

“You can’t read a page without laughing,” says the author of “The Outsiders,” who’s watched the stage musical of the novel become a Tony Award-winning hit this year.