5 notable books by author Sophie Kinsella, who died at age 55

By HILLEL ITALIE Sophie Kinsella who has died at age had a special talent for characters who persevered through the greater part embarrassing mishaps often of their own making Related Articles Kate Baer wrote her poems with you in mind Eric Dane s emotional memoir including his life with ALS to be published in The best mystery novels of The best books of Censorship crime and compassion notable books of A posthumous memoir about Epstein Hunger Games and reliving Here are five novels that helped keep readers guffawing and relating over the past years The Tennis Party Fellow writers could only envy Kinsella s success how early it came and how seemingly easy As the author would remember she was a -year-old financial journalist who while commuting by train one day thought to herself I want to have a go at this I want to write a book Within two years she was the bestselling author of The Tennis Party under her real name Madeleine Wickham Disclosed in the U S as Love her debut novel centered on the misadventures of a weekend tennis party and introduced readers to her conversational touch about everything from love to money to tennis They all have a lot of baggage the author explained on her website They sleep with each other they behave very badly drink a lot of Pimms thrash tennis balls around and things come to a head quite intensely The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic She published her first several books as Wickham before becoming a global brand as Sophie Kinsella Spurred by this first Shopaholic novel millions would cheer on the hopelessly indebted financial journalist Becky Bloomwood who helps keep the economic activity turning with her investments in clothing household and other products Among the majority of cherished fantasies in her dreamworld that specific dotty old woman in Cornwall will mistakenly receive her humongous credit card bill and pay if off without checking the name Becky meanwhile will be sent the woman s bill for three tins of cat food which naturally I ll pay without question The film Confessions of a Shopaholic based on the first two of Kinsella s nine-novel series starred Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy Can You Keep a Secret As Kinsella the novelist had a mission to get her characters in trouble Emma Corrigan has a proper job as a marketing assistant and a proper and heartbreakingly handsome boyfriend She is also prone to panic and distraction to going about in community with her blouse unbuttoned or unleashing a spurt of soda on a client s shirt And she has a meager secrets she would like to hold on to whether it s pouring orange juice on the plant of a colleague who annoys her or how she sometimes holds back laughter while having sex just normal everyday little secrets This book was adapted into a movie starring Alexandra Daddario and Tyler Hoechlin FILE Author Sophie Kinsella shops in the children s section at Bergdorf Goodman in New York Tuesday Sept AP Photo Bebeto Matthews File The Undomestic Goddess Her alliteratively named characters were ever fish out of water sometimes on the driest land Samantha Sweeting is a London lawyer who can t take it anymore boards a train to the countryside and finds herself working as a housekeeper for which she has no known skills I had so much fun charting Samantha s comedy disasters in the kitchen her battles with the ironing board her gradual slowing down and relaxing and finding love the author writes on her website It s a story of an uber-professional realizing there s more to life than work and starting to appreciate the little things Twenties Girl Just your typical supernatural adventure in which -year-old Lara Lington is visited by the ghost of her flapper-great aunt Sadie and sent off to retrieve Sadie s long-lost necklace Subplots include Lara being dumped by her boyfriend and Lara wondering if she can succeed in business as a headhunter She also lies a lot to her parents Yes her work is going great Yes she loved their Christmas gift No she doesn t just subsist on pizza and yogurt and vodka And so on Seven lies Not including all the ones about Mum s outfit