Sophie Kinsella is a pseudonym that Madeleine Wickham started using once she published Confessions of a Shopaholic. Although Wickham had previously published seven other books under her real name, her Kinsella books were much more popular, so she has stuck with the pseudonym. All of her books fall into the genre "chick lit" -- light, humorous books about modern women and their misadventures in life and love.

She lives in London with her husband, Henry Wickham (whom she met in Oxford), who was previously headmaster of Lockers Park boys preparatory school and now manages her business affairs. They were married in 1991 and have four sons and a daughter.