1. What social, cultural, and political issues did Harrison encounter in the United States that differed from those in England? How did they affect her perceptions of Americans and of life in the United States? What differences between New Yorkers and Londoners does Harrison point out?

2. At Jodi’s party, in response to Deklin’s surprise at Bridget’s attending a party without knowing anyone there, Bridget remarks, “You should always feel excited by life and seek new adventures.” (p. 36) Four years later, when she meets Deklin again, he exclaims: “Don’t you feel lucky, Bridge? You got to have your adventures. Everyone else just reads about them.” (p. 362) In what ways does Bridget elsewhere and at other times show that she is excited by life? What circumstances make it possible for a person to seek new adventures? How appropriate is the word “adventures” in relation to Bridget’s experiences?

3. Angus declares to Bridget, at River Café: “It’s about how you imagine a future for yourself that may actually make you happy.” (p.61) One year after her breakup with Jack, Bridget reflects that she “had reached the last part of my breakup with Jack—I had faced his future without me in it.” How does Bridget’s view of, and attitude toward, the future—her own and that of others—change in the course of the book?

4. Of her subway ride back to Manhattan after her unfortunate run-in with Deklin and his girlfriend, Melissa, at the Great Lakes bar, Harrison recalls, “I didn’t know it yet . . ., but I’d just received another key piece of training for my new future life.” (p.72) What are some of the key pieces of training that Bridget receives during her early years in New York? What dating lessons does she learn in the course of the book, in what circumstances, and with what consequences? What advice would you have given her?

5. “Apocryphal tales and too much TV lead us to believe that big life changes happen in one huge moment of drama,” Harrison writes. “But in reality life is more likely to change course through a sequence of small epiphanies. A chain reaction of events—some prompted, some out of the blue—which gradually nudge you down a new path.” (p. 87) What “big life changes” and “small epiphanies” occur in Harrison’s book? What instances of both have you experienced, and how has each changed your life?

6. What does Bridget conclude regarding the importance of having girlfriends in New York? How do her relationships with other women affect her life and work?

7. The mother of Jesus, the toddler stabbed to death in the Bronx, exclaims to Bridget, “Life don’t stop, it just becomes harder.” (p. 148) Why do you agree or disagree with her? What differences in economic and social circumstances might account for differing views in this regard?

8. Considering the “boxloads” of letters” from people around the world thanking him for his heroism on 9/11, Mike Kehoe remarks to Bridget: “There were hundreds of other guys doing exactly the same as me that day. . . . How can you call me a hero? What about the guys who didn’t come back that day?” (p. 237) How do Kehoe’s remarks sum up the popular perception regarding those firefighters and others who survived the attack on the twin towers and those who “didn’t come back”?

9. As people realize that many of her columns are about herself and Jack, Bridget’s anxiety grows; she worries, “A dull column or my relationship up for grabs?” and confronts “that age-old question—what came first, your personal life or your career?” (p. 246) How does that question apply to both Bridget and Jack? In your own life, how has the personal or the professional tended to take precedence?

10. On the eve of her new assignment in the Hamptons and sitting down to write her final Sunday column, Bridget reflects: “I had pandered to my vanity for too long.” (p. 308) What role has vanity played in writing for the Post, and in her attitude toward dating in New York?

11. At the costume party on Shelter Island, Bridget comments to Evan, the host: “People should have the confidence to appreciate what they have, rather than constantly worry about what they don’t.” (p. 325) To what extent might this observation apply to the various people, from the Bronx to the Hamptons, with whom Bridget has interacted? Why has it taken her so long to reach this conclusion in respect to herself?

12. Were you convinced by Bridget’s optimism and springy step at she leaves the plane at the end of the book? To what degree do statements such as “I wouldn’t stop getting excited about life, why would I?” (p. 368) fly in the face of what Harrison has written up to this point, or conform with what she has revealed about her personality and character?

13. Harrison has remarked that “Even though my book has some sad patches its message is supposed to be about hope and the importance of having enthusiasm for life.” To what extent does that statement characterize Tabloid Love?

14. How would you characterize Bridget’s relationship with her parents? How is that relationship affected by her decision to live in another country, land how affected is she by their hopes for her? How do individuals deal, do you think, with moving far from their families? How much are they affected by their parents’ expectations and hopes, especially relating to marriage and grandchildren?

15. How does Bridget’s Christmas Day assignment to interview, Mr. Russo, the man widowed just hours before affect her attitude toward her job and her life? How easy is if for each of us to read about or witness such events, resolve to appreciate more our own good fortunes, and then carry on? To what degree to newspaper readers and TV-news watchers display the same hardened attitudes as reporters?

16. Writing about her upcoming documentary with matchmaker Lisa Ronis, Harrison notes that her column was gradually “becoming a popular slot in the paper, as—bar the Lucian Encounter—I shamelessly described everything that happened to me as a single person in New York.” (p. 143) Would you feel comfortable producing a commentary on your dating and your sex life?

About the Author

Columnist Bridget Harrison has written for the New York Post, the London Observer, and the Times and Sunday Times of London. She lives in New York City and London.