The news was announced on her Instagram account on Wednesday afternoon.
“It is with great sadness that we inform you that our beloved Sophie (also known as Maddy, also known as Mummy) passed away this morning,” it said. “She died peacefully, in her last days surrounded by her true loves: family, music, warmth, Christmas and joy.”
“We cannot imagine what life will be like without her radiant personality and zest for life,” the message continues. “Despite her illness, which she bore with incredible courage, Sophie felt truly blessed, with such wonderful family and friends, and with the extraordinary success of her writing career.”
According to her relatives, she took nothing for granted and was “always grateful for the love she received.”
The author, whose real name is Madeleine Wickham, has more than 45 million copies of her books, which have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold in more than 60 countries, according to her website.
The queen of feel-good novels also wrote a novel about her illness (How does it feel?). In it she describes how, due to memory loss, she kept forgetting what happened to her and how, despite the odds, she tries to keep her courage up.
Kinsella told De Telegraaf last year that her husband scours the internet every morning for hopeful stories about other patients who have lived for a very long time. “In the meantime, I have also become a positive story myself, because I am still here.” She described herself as a born optimist. “I still love happy endings.”
Her main character ShopaholicBecky Bloomwood, a financial journalist who loves shopping and is hopeless with money, appeared on the big screen in 2009 in a film adaptation of Confessions of a shopaholic. She was played by Australian actress Isla Fisher.