Sophie Kinsella, the USA TODAY bestselling English rom-com author of the “Shopaholic” series, died Wednesday. She was 55.
Kinella’s family announced her death in a post to Instagram Dec. 10, writing: “We are heartbroken to announce the passing this morning of our beloved Sophie (aka Maddy, aka Mummy). 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 statement continued. “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. She took nothing for granted and was forever grateful for the love she received.”
Kinsella announced in April 2024 that she had been diagnosed with glioblastoma, a “form of aggressive brain cancer,” at the end of 2022. She said she had undergone a “successful” surgery and continued to receive radiotherapy and chemotherapy at the University College Hospital in London.
“She will be missed so much our hearts are breaking💔💔💔,” her family’s statement concluded.
USA TODAY has reached out to reps for Kinsella for comment.
The author of more than 30 novels, Kinsella was best known for her “Shopaholic” book series, many of which landed on the USA TODAY bestsellers list, and in 2009 got the big screen treatment with the film “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” starring Isla Fisher.
“I’ve wanted for a long time to share with you a health update and I’ve been waiting for the strength to do so,” Kinsella wrote in a statement at the time of her diagnosis. “I did not share this before because I wanted to make sure that my children were able to hear and process the news in privacy and adapt to our ‘new normal.'”
Since her diagnosis, Kinsella announced her next novel, “What Does It Feel Like?,” would be published in October 2024.
“Eve’s story is my story – and through her tough times, she laughs and cries and is upbeat, as am I,” Kinsella wrote in an announcement.
Born in London in 1969, Kinsella’s real name was Madeleine. It wasn’t until later in her career that she adopted a pseudonym, which combined her own middle name and her mother’s maiden name. She originally studied music at the University of Oxford, where she met husband Henry Wickham, but changed to politics, philosophy and economics a year in.
Kinsella worked as a financial journalist before finding her calling as a fiction writer — though that early career would later serve as vital inspiration for her most notable work.
Her first few novels, written in her mid-20s to early-30s, were published under the name Wickham. It wasn’t until her first “Shopaholic” book — “The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic,” re-named as “Confessions of a Shopaholic” in the United States — that she took on the Kinsella.
The “Shopaholic” series starred Becky Bloomwood, a financial journalist whose shopping addiction lands her in massive debt. It would go on to build to a 10-novel series and a 2009 rom-com that garnered “middling” reviews but featured an all-star cast including Fisher, Hugh Dancy, Joan Cusack, John Goodman, John Lithgow, Ed Helms and Fred Armisen. Kinsella served as an associate producer.
Kinsella published her most recent novel, “The Burnout,” in October 2023.
“Having experienced burnout myself in the past and seeing it around me everywhere, I was keen to write about it,” Kinsella wrote in a description of the book on her website. “It’s a serious subject, and I hope I’ve done it justice, but – you know me – I have to see the funny and ridiculous side of any situation.”
That description summarizes her career well.
Kinsella’s books were a gateway into the world of grown-up rom-coms for a generation of young female readers. Her prose masterfully mixed humor and romance. As a woman who began writing romcoms in the ’90s, she wasn’t immune to getting labeled a “chick lit” writer — meant in many cases as a way of lessening the value of her work. But Kinsella and her army of loyal readers never wavered from celebrating the idea of stories about three-dimensional women: characters who were both smart and liked shopping; who simultaneously were silly and thoughtful.
“You’re sitting alone in your room and you’re tapping away and you hope people enjoy your book and then off it goes,” she told CBS News in 2014. “But then you get somebody who says, ‘well, you know what? I’ve read your book in the middle of the night when I was recovering from (an) operation and it got me through.’ I mean, how can you do anything better in life than that?”
Kinsella is survived by her husband and their five children.
Contributing: Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY
