Writer Sophie Kinsella has died at the age of 55.
The best-selling author of the Shopaholic series had been battling cancer, it has been confirmed.
Her family confirmed the news this morning through a statement posted on her Instagram account.
"We are heartbroken to announce the passing this morning of our beloved Sophie (aka Maddy, aka Mummy)," the statement read.
Sophie Kinsella had been battling cancer
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The writer, whose birth name was Madeleine Sophie Townley, had been living with glioblastoma since receiving her diagnosis in 2022.
This particularly aggressive form of brain cancer was kept private until April of this year, when Kinsella chose to share her health situation publicly.
She had been receiving treatment at a London hospital and expressed gratitude to medical staff caring for her.
Kinsella was born in 1969 and spent her formative years in the capital before studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics at New College, Oxford.
Sophie Kinsella's family announced the sad news on Wednesday
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It was during her first evening as a student that she met Harry Wickham, a teacher whom she would marry in 1991.
At just 24, she penned her debut novel, The Tennis Party, completing the manuscript within a matter of months.
To master the craft of storytelling, she analysed the work of Jilly Cooper, breaking down chapters to understand narrative structure.
"I took a Jilly Cooper novel and broke it down chapter by chapter, noting what happened in each, to see how she did it," she later told Woman & Home.
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The book reached shelves in 1995 under her married name, Madeleine Wickham.
Initially determined to establish herself as a serious literary figure, Kinsella had focused her early work on weightier themes and characters far removed from her own experience.
Six novels followed under her real name before she reached her late twenties and decided to take a different creative path.
"I thought, OK, now without being defensive, I will write a silly book about things I know, and just make it funny and ridiculous," she explained to The Guardian. "And if it fails, that's OK."
Sophie Kinsella in 2016
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The result was The Dreamworld of a Shopaholic, featuring protagonist Becky Bloomwood, a financial journalist with a weakness for retail therapy.
Her pen name combined her middle name with her mother's maiden surname.
The series proved phenomenally successful, with her books selling approximately 45 million copies across more than 60 countries and translated into over 40 languages.
A 2009 film adaptation starred Isla Fisher alongside Hugh Dancy.
Throughout her career, Kinsella bristled slightly at the "chick lit" classification often applied to her work, preferring terms such as contemporary fiction or "wit lit".
"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.
"I've never had anyone say to my face, 'Your books are inferior', but if people say, 'Your books are beach reads', I say, 'Yep, that's fine by me. Read them on the beach!'"
When revealing her illness publicly in April, she explained the delay had been to protect her children, allowing them time to process the news privately and adjust to their "new normal".
Kinsella is survived by her husband Henry and their five children.