S is for Sophie Kinsella

Born 1969

She was a financial journalist who didn’t much care for her job but since that was all she could do she slogged away at it, anyway. At least that's what she thought. Each day while on her way to work she’d read paperbacks. One day she thought, “I can write books like this.” And she did just that. At age 24 she was a published author. She went on to write six more books and all were a success. They were light fun reads you pick up on a holiday. Madeleine Wickham had arrived.

A few years down the line she felt confident enough to work on an idea that seemed ‘silly’. She went ahead because she wanted to try to write something funny and ridiculous. So she wrote a book about a girl who, like her, is a financial journalist yet is clueless about her own finances. Wickham was a tad embarrassed about her idea and was so unsure of how it would be received that she submitted it to the publishers under a different name – Sophie Kinsella – combining her middle name and her mum’s surname.

The book, Confessions of a Shopaholic, was a knockout success.
She went on to write five more books in the series while simultaneously working on stand-alone books too. Oh she’s prolific.

She’s hardly similar to her ditzy heroines. She studied at the University of Oxford where, after a year of studying music, she moved to Politics, Philosophy and Economics. That’s where she met her husband Henry Wickham.

About the Shopaholic Becky Bloomwood..



Kinsella's shopaholic heroine, Rebecca Bloomwood is a financial journalist yet her own finances are always in a mess. Even if she’s overshot her credit limit, or has loads of debt on her bank overdraft she finds herself in the poshest of stores buying things she might not even need. Yes she’s a Shopaholic.
I wouldn’t call Becky Bloomwood my favourite heroine. Each time I’d see her longing for that crazily expensive scarf or a madly out of reach dress I’d find myself saying….No no no.. stop stop… even knowing that she wouldn’t. And she never did.

Yet there’s something lovable and ‘nice’ about her that appeals even to a conservative Capricornian like me. Besides, she’s funny. Her adventures make for a delightful read. And so I remain a Kinsella fan.

PS: I’m thinking of writing a book because women authors these days are so darned pretty.
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It's a relatively lesser known author tomorrow from a neighbouring country - Bangladesh - this time. She delves into issues of war and religion like few have ever done.
So any guesses?
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This post is part of the April A to Z Challenge, 2014 for the theme AMAZING AUTHORS.


Also linking to the Ultimate Blog Challenge.


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