Who is Sophie Kinsella and what was she diagnosed with?
SOPHIE Kinsella is one of the world's most popular authors, with her books having sold over 45 million copies across the globe.
In April 2024, the 54-year-old revealed that she had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, shocking fans everywhere.
Who is Sophie Kinsella?
Born on December 12, 1969, in Wandsworth, England, Madeleine Sophie Wickham, better known by her pen name, Sophia Kinsella, is a British author renowned for her Shopaholic series.
A graduate of New College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, with a Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE) degree, Kinsella first worked as a financial journalist before pursuing a career in writing fiction novels.
She admitted that being a journalist wasn't her first choice, but rather her only choice at the beginning of her career.
"To be honest, it was the only job I could get. I didn't really have a game plan. And then it just hit me that actually, I want to make it up. It was reading paperbacks on the way to work, thinking that's what I want to do," she told The Guardian. "And I thought, I can tell a story like this."
Read more on book authors
Kinsella started writing and publishing novels at the age of 24 under her real name but decided to switch to a pseudonym just right before she worked on the Shopaholic books.
A prominent figure in the chick-lit genre, Kinsella's books have sold over 45 million worldwide and have been translated into 40 languages.
When she's not lost in her literary world and clacking away at her keyboard, Kinsella tends to her five children, whom she shares with her husband Henry Wickham, previously the schoolmaster of Lockers Park Preparatory School and now Kinsella's business manager.
What was Sophie Kinsella diagnosed with?
In April 2024, Sophie Kinsella took to Instagram to share an update on her medical condition.
Most read in Entertainment
She revealed that she had been diagnosed with a rare form of aggressive brain cancer, specifically glioblastoma.
She had been trying to fight the illness since the end of 2022, but only opened up to the public after explaining her situation to her children.
“I’ve wanted for a long time to share with you a health update and I’ve been waiting for the strength to do so. At the end of 2022 I was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a form of aggressive brain cancer,” the novelist wrote in posts shared across her social media accounts.
“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.’”
Kinsella went on to assure fans that she is working with an "excellent team" of professionals at University College Hospital in London, and that she had undergone a successful surgery. She is also currently receiving radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments.
"At the moment all is stable and I am feeling generally very well, though I get very tired and my memory is even worse than it was before!" she added.
Kinsella concluded her announcement by expressing her gratitude to her family, friends, medical team, and readers across the world.
She also shared an empowering message to fellow cancer patients.
"To everyone who is suffering from cancer in any form I send love and best wishes, as well as to those who support them," she said. "It can feel very lonely and scary to have a tough diagnosis, and the support and care of those around you means more than words can say."
"I’ll be in touch soon, and in the meanwhile, greetings from sunny London."
According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, glioblastoma is a fast-growing and aggressive brain tumor that affects a specific brain tissue and is often located in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain.
It's also the most common malignant brain tumor, representing 47.7% of cases.
What are some of Sophie Kinsella's most famous books?
Sophie Kinsella has published over 30 books throughout her career, including standalone novels, but the most popular by far is the Shopaholic series, which revolves around a woman named Rebecca Bloomwood, a journalist with a shopping addiction.
The series has ten books to date, with the first two, namely, The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Abroad, having been optioned by a Hollywood studio to be turned into a film.
The Confessions of a Shopaholic film, starring Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy, was released in 2009 and earned $108.3 million at the box office.
Kinsella's most recent book is a standalone novel titled The Burnout, which was released in October 2023.
Read More on The US Sun
"I have experienced burnout myself in the past and I see it around me everywhere, so I was keen to write about it," she said of the book in an interview with Spa Reads.
"It’s a serious subject, it’s not something you can just bounce back from, and I hope I’ve done it justice, but – me being me – I have to see the funny and ridiculous side of any situation. So, The Burnout is very much a comedy – a romantic comedy."