Writer Sophie Kinsella, whose effervescent rom-com Confessions of a Shopaholic sparked a millions-selling series, died Wednesday, her family said. She was 55 and had been diagnosed with brain cancer.
The family said in a statement on Sophie’s Instagram account that “she died peacefully, with her final days filled with her true loves: family and music and warmth and Christmas and joy.”
“We can’t imagine what life will be like without her radiance and love of life,” the family said.
From journalism to fiction
Sophie Kinsella did not grow up intending to be a writer. One of three girls born to teachers in London, she played piano and violin as a child and also composed music. She told author-publisher Zibby Owens on her podcast, Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, that the idea of writing never crossed her mind. “It wasn’t my childhood ambition. I wasn’t the child walking around saying, ‘I’m going to write a novel one day.’”
The author enrolled at Oxford University to study music but switched to the politics, philosophy and economics programme after one year. While at college, she met musician Henry Wickham and fell in love. The couple had four sons and a daughter.
After graduating, Sophie began working as a financial journalist and spent her commute reading. The idea to write fiction herself began to take shape on the train, and she worked on her first novel during her lunch hours.
She published her first novel, The Tennis Party, in 1995, as Madeleine Wickham. Soon after, she left her journalism job to focus on writing. Six other books, including The Gatecrasher and Sleeping Arrangements, followed.
Sophie published 10 Shopaholic novels starting in 2000 with The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic, titled Confessions of a Shopaholic in the United States, as well as other fiction. Her books have sold more than 45 million copies worldwide and have been translated into dozens of languages.
Illness and hope
In November 2022, after experiencing symptoms including memory loss, headaches and balance troubles, Sophie was diagnosed with glioblastoma, for which there is no cure. She kept the news private until April 2024. In an interview with TV personality Robin Roberts aired a few months later, Sophie had said she was focused on living in the moment.
“I’ve already lasted more than the average. That’s how we get through. We hope,” she said. After her diagnosis, she wrote a novella, What Does It Feel Like, about a woman with five children who has brain cancer.
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