Sophie Kinsella, who wrote ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ series, dead at 55

British novelist Sophie Kinsella, who wrote the “Confessions of a Shopaholic” series, died on Wednesday. She was 55.

The author’s family confirmed her death in an Instagram post on Wednesday.

“She died peacefully, with her final days filled with her true loves: family and music and warmth and Christmas and joy,” they wrote.

The author, whose real name was Madeleine Sophie Wickham, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of glioblastoma brain cancer in 2022.

Kinsella announced the diagnosis on X in April 2024.

The first two novels in Kinsella’s nine-book Shopaholic series were adapted into a 2009 movie starring Isla Fisher.

“I thought, wait a minute, shopping has become the national pastime, and nobody has written about it,” Kinsella said about her series. “It felt very much like an experimental project.”

The series focused on Rebecca Bloomwood, a financial journalist who has an obsessive, funny urge to shop.

Kinsella said the idea for the first “Shopaholic” novel came in 1999, when she was stunned by a high credit card bill she received in the mail.

“My first thought was, ‘I don’t remember buying this or that, therefore I must have been defrauded,’” she said in a 2007 interview. “I suddenly saw the potential of shopping as a story to write about.”

She adopted her pen name by combining her middle name and her mother’s maiden name.

Kinsella’s other works include “Can You Keep A Secret?” and “The Undomestic Goddess.”

Her most recent novella, “What Does It Feel Like?”, was published in October 2024. It was a semi-fictional account of her cancer diagnosis and was written after her surgery.

Madeleine Sophie Townley Wickham was born in London on Dec. 12, 1969. She is survived by her husband, Henry Wickham, and their five children: Freddy, Hugo, Oscar, Rex and Sybella.

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