Madeleine Wickham (nee Townley), under her own name and the pseudonym, Sophie Kinsella, is a bestselling British author
Educated at Putney High School and New College, Oxford, she worked as a financial journalist before turning to fiction. She is best known for writing the Shopaholic novels series of chick-lit novels, which focus on the misadventures of Becky Bloomwood, a financial journalist who cannot manage her own finances. The books follow her life from when her credit card debt first becomes overwhelming ("Confessions of a Shopaholic") to the latest book on being married and having a child ("Shopaholic & Baby"). Throughout the entire series, her obsession with shopping and its resulting complications for her life is a central theme.
The first Shopaholic book is scheduled to be released as a Disney film in 2008, with Isla Fisher playing Becky and Hugh Dancy as Luke Brandon. The film will be set in New York, rather than London, where the book is set.
Sophie lives in Hertfordshire with her husband, Henry Wickham, a headmaster of a boys' prep school. They have been married for 17 years and they have 3 sons, Freddy 11, Hugo 9 and Oscar 2.
