Sophie Kinsella, prolific writer, has died at the age of 55. Recognized with a glioblastoma in 2022, Kinsella (a pen title for her actual title, Madeleine Wickham) shared the information on social media in 2024. At this time, her household introduced her loss of life on Instagram.
And I, together with thousands and thousands of loyal readers, am devastated.
Recognized for her witty storylines, her laugh-out-loud dialogue, and her completely flawed (however heat and wonderful) characters, Kinsella is finest recognized for penning the Confessions of a Shopaholic collection, together with greater than 40 different books, together with fan favorites like Can You Hold a Secret?, The Undomestic Goddess, and Bear in mind Me?. However her books weren’t simply industrial successes — they felt like actual folks. Like Rebecca Bradley (neé Bradley) may stroll proper out of the web page and sit down subsequent to you, and also you each would know one another immensely.
And for a teenage lady feeling just a little unmoored, that type of connection was a balm.
I began studying Confessions of a Shopaholic within the early 2000s. I believe I used to be 13 once I learn the primary one, and one thing concerning the cowl caught my eye at Barnes & Noble. I sat down and browse all the factor whereas my huge sister shopped, and after that, I used to be hooked.
I learn each e book Kinsella wrote, and every time, one thing else brightened just a little bit inside me. As a result of Kinsella wasn’t simply writing humorous books — she was writing characters that deeply resonated with me. If Becky Bloomwood may come out the opposite facet of her troubles, properly then so may I. She wrote characters with dysfunctional households, characters in dangerous relationships, characters who longed for extra. She wrote characters who have been self-aware, characters who needed to discover their demons and battle them, characters who typically wanted just a little push. She wrote characters who have been weak, characters who have been sturdy, characters who have been persistent.
Above all, she wrote characters who — finally — have been unashamed of who they have been. Their flaws weren’t issues to repair about themselves; they have been issues to embrace. Each a part of them — their forgetfulness, their failures, their flakiness — was celebrated. All of it constructed as much as make them good, regular people who have been making an attempt their finest, day in and time out, and who by no means, for one second, gave up.
To today, once I want a consolation learn, I seize a Sophie Kinsella e book off my shelf. I can decide any single certainly one of them up, flip to a random web page, and immediately really feel comforted and secure. It’s like speaking to an outdated good friend, one thing Kinsella knew her readers felt about her and her books. “They really feel like they know me and that they are my finest good friend, and I really feel like I do know them, too,” she advised The New York Occasions in 2007. “It’s like we share a common friend: my characters.”
I’m so grateful she had a lot to share. From one lady who wanted to know there have been different women like her on the planet — loud women, humorous women, opinionated women — thanks, Sophie Kinsella. Your legacy will stay for all of us who have to really feel like we have now a good friend close by, for all of us who want a reminder that we’re by no means an excessive amount of and we’re by no means too little; we’re precisely who we’re, and we needs to be exceedingly in love with ourselves. Flaws and all.
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