Fans of Bridget Jones, rushing to find out the London diarist's latest adventures, were left baffled on Thursday after pages from the autobiography of a British actor were mistakenly inserted in her new book.

"The printers have had a Bridget moment," said a spokeswoman for publishers Vintage.

"A printing error has been detected in some of the very early copies of 'Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy'," she explained.

Readers were given an unexpected peak at a preview from the autobiography of David Jason, the much-loved star of BBC TV sitcom "Only Fools and Horses."

Around 40 pages of his work found their way into early runs of Helen Fielding's latest book, the third in the Bridget Jones saga.

"We are taking steps to remove these copies from sale and will be replacing misprinted stock as soon as possible," explained the spokeswoman.

Fielding laughed off the glitch, calling it "so funny."

"You are reading Bridget and suddenly you fall on David Jason," she told Sue MacGregor from BBC. "I really laughed, I thought it was great."

After 14 years out of the limelight, Jones returned to British bookstores on Thursday.

The latest release follows Jones, now a mother of two, as she falls for a "toy boy" following the death of her husband Mark Darcy.

Fielding urged fans to keep Darcy's death "in proportions" but revealed she was worried how Colin Firth, who played the character on the big screen, would react to the news.

"The hardest was I had to ring up Colin and tell him, it was as if I was announcing someone's dead," she told MacGregor.

"I asked him if he was sitting, if he was alone...were very upset but then we started laughing because in reality nobody died."