“We are heartbroken to announce the passing this morning of our beloved Sophie,” her family said on Instagram.

Madeleine Sophie Wickham, who wrote under the pen name Sophie Kinsella, revealed last year that she was receiving chemotherapy and radiotherapy for glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

“We can’t imagine what life will be like without her radiance and love of life. Despite her illness, which she bore with unimaginable courage, Sophie counted herself truly blessed – to have such wonderful family and friends, and to have had the extraordinary success of her writing career,” the Instagram post said.

Her books have sold some 50 million copies and have been translated into over 40 languages, according to a biography on her website.

The first two books from her “Shopaholic” series were adapted for the 2009 romantic comedy film “Confessions of a Shopaholic” starring Isla Fisher. It tells the story of Becky Bloomwood, a financial journalist who is a serial shopper and hopeless when it comes to her own finances.

Kinsella wrote her first novel “The Tennis Party” aged 24, when she was working as a financial journalist herself.

Her latest novels were “The Burnout” (2023) and “What Does it Feel Like?” (2024) – the latter a semi-fictional account of her cancer journey which made it onto several bestseller lists.

In an introduction to the book, Kinsella said she had “always processed my life through writing”.

She continued: “Hiding behind my fictional characters, I have always turned my own life into a narrative. It is my version of therapy, maybe.”