Madeleine Wickham (Sophie Kinsella), 1969-2025
The bestselling novelist Madeleine Wickham, best known to millions of readers and fans as her pseudonym Sophie Kinsella, has died aged 55 after a courageous battle with brain cancer. She is survived by her husband Henry Wickham and their five children.
Wickham, known to everyone as Maddy, wrote her first novel The Tennis Party under her real name aged 24, whilst working as a financial journalist. It was an immediate success, a top-ten bestseller hailed by critics and readers alike, and she went on to publish six more novels as Madeleine Wickham.
Five years later, writing as Sophie Kinsella, she published the groundbreaking The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic, which introduced readers to the beloved Becky Bloomwood, a character for our times: funny, feisty and without a trace of guile. Over the next 25 years, Maddy would go on to write eight further Shopaholic novels and another 18 books, including one YA novel and four children’s books. Over the course of her career, she has sold over 50 million copies of her books in over 60 countries and has been translated into 40 languages.
“As a writer, Maddy was a complete professional; she consistently delivered above and beyond what she promised,” said Bill Scott-Kerr, Wickham’s publisher, in a statement following her death. “But what really singles her out and made all of her myriad achievements possible was her humanity.
“Maddy leaves behind a glorious and indelible legacy: a unique voice, an unquenchable spirit, a goodness of intent and a body of work that will continue to inspire us to reach higher and be better, just like so many of her characters. On a personal level Maddy was the embodiment of joy, an extraordinarily clever, funny, sassy, impish, kind and generous collaborator who brought light into our lives.”
While she is known as the ‘queen of happy endings’, Wickham also defined and elevated romantic comedy by populating her stories with real-life issues that combined wit, emotional depth and societal insight. Her distinctive voice and style brought her readers from a wide demographic across the world.
Wickham’s most recent book, published in 2024, was the extraordinary novella What Does It Feel Like?, a poignant and witty account of her cancer journey, which was miraculously written after her surgery and went on to become another instant Sunday Times bestseller.
“Maddy was an intelligent, imaginative, loving and irreverent woman who valued the deeply connective power of fiction,” said Araminta Whitley and Marina de Pass, Wickham’s agents at The Soho Agency, in a statement. “She had a rare gift for creating emotionally resonant protagonists and stories that spoke to, and entertained, readers wherever they were in the world and whatever challenges they faced. She also had an unmatched wit and ability to find the funny side. Comedy, for her, was both an art form and an intellectual pursuit and she instinctively understood that it is often a tightrope act of balancing light with dark.
“It is hard to contemplate life and work without Maddy. We will remember her for her warmth, insight and irrepressible sense of humour, for the magnificent, witty and resonant novels she leaves behind, and for making our days infinitely more meaningful and fun. We are completely heartbroken at her death. We loved her dearly and will miss her more than we can say.”