The author, whose real name was Madeleine Sophie Wickham, had been battling brain cancer since 2022.

Sophie Kinsella, Confessions of a Shopaholic author, dies at 55

The author, whose real name was Madeleine Sophie Wickham, had been battling brain cancer since 2022.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and *NME*.

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December 10, 2025 11:09 a.m. ET

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Sophie Kinsella in 2016. Credit:

Roberto Ricciuti/Getty

Sophie Kinsella, the British author behind the beloved *Confessions of a Shopaholic* book series, has died. She was 55.**

Her family announced her death in an Instagram post on Wednesday. Kinsella, whose real name was Madeleine Sophie Wickham, announced in April 2024 that she had been privately battling brain cancer since 2022. **

“We are heartbroken to announce the passing this morning of our beloved Sophie (aka Maddy, aka Mummy),” the post read. “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.

Sophie Kinsella in 2019.

Stefania D'Alessandro/Getty

“Despite her illness, which she bore with unimaginable courage, Sophie counted herself truly blessed - to have such wonderful family and friends, and to have had the extraordinary success of her writing career,” the statement continued. “She took nothing for granted and was forever grateful for the love she received.”**

It concluded, “She will be missed so much our hearts are breaking.”

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Kinsella became a sensation within the literary world upon the release of her 2000 novel *The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic*, which was released under the title *Confessions of a Shopaholic *in the United States. The book followed Rebecca "Becky" Bloomwood, a financial journalist with a penchant for some serious retail therapy. **

In a 2007 interview with the Canadian outlet *The Times Colonist*, Kinsella explained that the idea for the novel came to her a year earlier after she received a remarkably high credit card bill. **

“My first thought was, ‘I don’t remember buying this or that, therefore I must have been defrauded,’” she said, per *The New York Times*. “I suddenly saw the potential of shopping as a story to write about.”**

She would go on to write 10 total installments within the *Confessions of a Shopaholic* series, the last being 2019’s *Christmas Shopaholic*. **

The series’ first novel and second entry,* Shopaholic Abroad*, were also used as the basis for the 2009 film* Confessions of a Shopaholic*, which starred Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy. Her 2003 stand-alone novel,* Can You Keep A Secret?, *was also adapted into a full-length feature film starring Alexandra Daddario and Tyler Hoechlin in 2019.

Born Dec. 12, 1969, in London, Kinsella started out her career as a financial journalist, not unlike Bloomwood, before making the leap to writing fiction with her 1995 novel, *The Tennis Party*. Over the course of her career, Wickham penned more than 30 novels under both the name Sophie Kinsella and her real name. **

Her final novel, 2024’s *What Does It Feel Like?*, centered on a successful author named Eve and her battle with brain cancer. Kinsella described it as “my most autobiographical work to date,” adding, ‘Eve’s story is my story.”**

Kinsella is survived by her husband, Henry Wickham, as well as their five children, Freddy, Hugo, Oscar, Rex, and Sybella.

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