Sophie Kinsella

Sophie Kinsella is a writer and former financial journalist. She is very, very careful with her money and only occasionally finds herself queuing for a sale. Her relationship with her bank manager is excellent.

Born in 1969, in England; married Henry (a teacher), c. 1990; children: Freddy, Hugo. Education: Earned degree from Oxford University, c. 1991.

Accompanied her vocalist husband on the piano in musical recitals, early 1990s; financial journalist in England until c. 1995; published first novel, The Tennis Party, under name Madeleine Wickham, 1995; wrote four others before The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic, published under pen name Sophie Kinsella, 2000, and in the United States as Confessions of a Shopaholic, 2001.
Sidelights

British author Sophie Kinsella is the pseudonymous creator of the immensely successful "Shopaholic" novels. The lighthearted tales center around one woman's struggle to rein in her madcap spending habits, find professional achievement, and snag the man of her dreams. The first book to feature Becky "Shopaholic" Bloomwood was published in the United Kingdom in 2000, and sold so well on both sides of the Atlantic that Kinsella created an entire mini-genre featuring her heroine, and some three million copies of the series were in print four years later. Kinsella believed that the financial woes chronicled in the books were part of their appeal.