The author, celebrated worldwide for the enormously successful Shopaholic series, had been battling glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer diagnosed in 2022.

Her family confirmed her passing in a statement released on Wednesday, December 10, saying she died “peacefully,” surrounded in her final days by “family and music and warmth and Christmas and joy.”

Kinsella’s final novel was published in late 2024 and drew directly from her own experience with illness. Titled What Does It Feel Like?, the book centers on a successful writer named Eve who is suddenly faced with a devastating brain tumor diagnosis and must navigate love, loss, and acceptance.

Born Madeleine Wickham, Kinsella rose to international fame in the early 2000s with the Shopaholic novels, which sold more than 45 million copies worldwide and were translated into dozens of languages. The first two installments were adapted into the 2009 romantic comedy Confessions of a Shopaholic, starring Isla Fisher.

She is survived by her husband of 34 years, Henry Wickham, and their five children. In their statement, her family said, “We can’t imagine what life will be like without her radiance and love of life.” They added that “despite her illness, which she bore with unimaginable courage, Sophie counted herself truly blessed.”

Kinsella publicly disclosed her diagnosis in April 2024, explaining that she had chosen to keep it private so her children could process the news away from public attention.

“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,’” she wrote at the time.

First symptoms

Kinsella later explained that her health concerns began when several alarming symptoms appeared simultaneously.

“The first symptoms that I had was, in fact, was my legs,” she told Robin Roberts.

I was stumbling. I was tripping. I started getting very severe headaches. I got very confused. But it was really when I started tipping over in my chair that we realized something really was wrong.”

Throughout her career, Kinsella created characters that resonated with millions of readers, most notably Becky Bloomwood, the endearing and chaotic heroine of Confessions of a Shopaholic. She once explained that the idea for the series came from a simple shopping trip, when she wondered why no one had written about the universal experience of overspending, regret, and the thrill of a new purchase.

In addition to her work as Sophie Kinsella, she published several novels under her real name, beginning with The Tennis Party in 1995. After initially studying music and then PPE at Oxford, she worked briefly as a financial journalist before turning to fiction full time.

Final wish

Her literary agents described her as a writer with “a rare gift for creating emotionally resonant protagonists,” while her publisher said she leaves behind “a unique voice, an unquenchable spirit,” and a body of work that will continue to inspire readers.