Sophie Kinsella, author of the millions-selling ‘Shopaholic’ novels, dies at 55

LONDON AP Sophie Kinsella the author of Confessions of a Shopaholic and a series of millions-selling rom-com sequels died Wednesday her family stated She was and had been diagnosed with brain cancer The family explained in a comment on Kinsella s Instagram account 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 pleasure We can t imagine what life will be like without her radiance and love of life Kinsella who also published under her real name Madeleine Wickham reported in April that she had been diagnosed in late with glioblastoma an aggressive form of brain cancer I did not share this before because I wished to make sure that my children were able to hear and process the news in privacy and adapt to our new normal ' she reported at the time Starting in with The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic titled Confessions of a Shopaholic in the United States Kinsella published Shopaholic novels along with other fiction Her books have sold more than million copies worldwide and have been translated into dozens of languages The first two Shopaholic books were adapted into the film Confessions of a Shopaholic starring Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy From journalism to fiction 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 narrated 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 Kinsella enrolled at Oxford University to scrutiny music but switched to the politics philosophy and economics campaign after one year While at college she met local musician Henry Wickham and fell in love The couple had four sons and a daughter After graduating Kinsella began working as a financial journalist and spent her commute reading The idea to write fiction herself began to take shape on the train She published her debut novel The Tennis Party in when she was as Madeleine Wickham Soon after she left her journalism job to focus on writing Six other books including The Gatecrasher and Sleeping Arrangements followed Shopaholic success An otherwise normal shopping excursion sparked the idea for writing her first Shopaholic novel I remember looking around me and thinking We all shop We talk about it We do it We rejoice in it We make bad decisions Why hasn t anybody written about this Kinsella mentioned in on The Sunday Salon with Alice-Azania Jarvis podcast Kinsella created a story about Becy Bloomwood a -something financial journalist in debt from a shopping habit she can t or won t kick The novel contained hilarious back-and-forth correspondence with bill collectors and banks where she would make excuses for late payments Kinsella narrated The Associated Press in an interview that the letters were one of the preponderance fun bits of writing There was also a love story with a handsome businessman whom Becky met while on assignment and went on to marry him and have a mini-shopaholic daughter in future books Confessions of a Shopaholic had a different tone and style than her earlier books so she decided to submit it to her publishers under the pen name Sophie Kinsella Her middle name was Sophie and Kinsella was her mother s maiden name The publishers reported yes and Shopaholic was published in under her pseudonym The novel blending humor with a cautionary tale about getting in over your head with debt was an immediate success Becky was kind of like a pioneer in realizing that all this easy credit can lead to problems Kinsella advised The AP Kinsella also wrote The Undomestic Goddess Remember Me and Twenties Girl A young adult novel Finding Audrey was issued in followed by the children s book series My Mummy Fairy and Me Her novel Can You Keep a Secret was adapted into a film starring Alexandra Daddario and Tyler Hoechlin in Her last novel was The Burnout distributed in Illness and hope In November after experiencing markers like memory loss headaches and balance troubles Kinsella was diagnosed with glioblastoma for which there is no cure She kept the news private until April In an interview with TV personality Robin Roberts aired a scarce months later Kinsella revealed 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 disclosed After her evaluation she wrote a novella What Does It Feel Like about a woman with five children who has brain cancer I thought people might be curious to know what it s like to go through this Kinsella stated Roberts I hope it s full of optimism and love most of of all Rancilio disclosed from Detroit Source