British bestselling author Sophie Kinsella passed away on Wednesday at age 55.
Her family announced her death on social media the same day, saying she died “this morning.”
“She died peacefully, with her final days filled with her true loves: family and music and warmth and Christmas and joy,” read the family’s official statement, per AP News.
The writer, whose real name is Madeleine Sophie Wickham, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in 2022.
The family 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. She will be missed so much, our hearts are breaking.”
Kinsella sold more than 50 million books in over 60 countries. Her work translated into more than 40 languages.
Raised in London and educated at Oxford, she first worked as a financial journalist and published her debut novel, The Tennis Party, at 24 under her real name, Madeleine Wickham.
She published a total of seven novels under her married name before switching to the Sophie Kinsella pen name in 2000. She went on to publish about 28 books as Sophie Kinsella, including The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic, which led to a nine-book hit series and a 2009 film, The Confessions of a Shopaholic.
Her books were occasionally referred to as “chick lit,” a description she did not fully endorse. “When I hear the term ‘chick lit’, I feel a pinprick of, not annoyance but of slight resignation,” she told the Daily Mail in 2018. “‘Oh, this again…'”
A statement from Kinsella’s publisher said she “defined and elevated romantic comedy by populating her stories with real-life issues that combined wit, emotional depth and societal insight.”
Her final work, the 2024 novella What Does It Feel Like?, was a semi-fictional account of her cancer diagnosis.
Kinsella shared five children with her husband, Henry.
