Madeleine Wickham, better known as Sophie Kinsella, the pen name she used to write Confessions of a Shopaholic, died after being diagnosed with glioblastoma. She was 55.
"She died peacefully, with her final days filled with her true loves: family and music and warmth and Christmas and joy," the social media post reads. "We can't imagine what life will be like without her radiance and love of life. 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."
Wickham announced her battle with brain cancer in 2024, about two years after her diagnosis
She said that she'd undergone an eight hour operation to remove the tumor, and overcame struggles with movement and dealt with memory loss in the aftermath.
"I think we just stay in the moment," she said during a Good Morning America interview. "And just think, 'Right now, things are good.' And you can't, you can't expect any more than that."Wickham's 2000 novel Confessions of Shopaholic inspired a series, and the 2009 feature of the same name was adapted from the first two books.
In 2019, her novel Can You Keep a Secret? inspired a movie.
"I was thinking about my visa bill as we all do, and thinking, you know, so many of us go through the same emotions -- the shock, the anger, the denial, and I suddenly thought, 'Wait, we all go through this. This is universal," she said. "And that inspired me to write my own character who shops perhaps just a little too much."
