Madeleine Wickham, the British author who wrote the “Confessions of a Shopaholic” novel series under the pen name Sophie Kinsella, becoming an international sensation, died Wednesday at her home in Dorset, England. She was 55.

Her family announced her death in a post on her Instagram page.

Wickham had been diagnosed with a glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, in 2022. She announced the diagnosis in a social media post in April 2024.

Wickham became a force in commercial fiction upon the release of “The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic,” (released as “Confessions of a Shopaholic” in the United States) in 2000. The book introduced audiences to the series hero, Rebecca Bloomwood, a financial journalist with an uncontrollable and comedic weakness for retail consumption.

The idea for the f

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