The death of a public figure usually comes and goes without much remark. An “oh did you know this person died” might pass between friends in conversation and is then not thought about again until someone comments that it has now somehow been five years since they passed, and everyone is shocked by how quickly time disappeared.
But, every now and then someone that genuinely touched your life will pass. Someone that made a difference and, even though you never met them, you will feel a sadness you thought was reserved for close friends or maybe even family members. For me, one of those people was Angela Lansbury. A light in my childhood that could never be outshone.
Another light was Sophie Kinsella.
I remember my first discovery of the Shopaholic series. I was in my local town centre library, scanning the books in the fiction section, head tilted slightly to the right so I could read the spines easier. The brightly coloured covers of Sophie’s books jumped out and I was instantly drawn to them. Both hers and Marian Keyes’ books were always so enticing to a twenty-year-old looking for their next read.
I borrowed the first in the series, The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic, and devoured it. For a young girl living in a council house, in a crummy part of town with a job in retail, the sparkly world of Rebecca Bloomwood was everything I wanted. I conveniently looked past the debt and drama, I wanted that life!
I wanted everything the girls in these books had. The designer clothes, the fashion job, the rom-com relationship — I was hooked. For almost the next two decades Sophie would bring out a new Becky Bloomwood story that I would love. I felt like Becky and I knew each other at this point, that she was a tangible character I had grown with and could escape with if life got too heavy in the real world.
Also, 2000 was a point in time for UK girlies where everything was American. The pop stars, the actors, movies, books. All of it. So it was refreshing to see a story that was as bright as the US shows and books but set in London. It made it feel more relatable and that the positive parts of Becky’s life — not the debt — were something we could realistically achieve.
The movie, Confessions of a Shopaholic, bought the story to a fresh new audience. It was colourful and bubbly and Isla Fisher did a fantastic job portraying Becky. I adore the movie and it lives firmly on my feel-good list. It’s not a guilty pleasure. I have no guilt.
The Shopaholic series will always be some of my favourite books and they belong to a time when my world was a lot simpler. I would spend hours in that library, carefully selecting my next pile of books to read. Now as a mum to eight-year-old twins, I don’t really have the same amount of time to read and it’s one of the things I miss most from that era of my life.
Maybe that’s why Sophie’s books hold so much meaning for me. Not just because they are fantastic stories, but because of what they represent. And because of the world they opened up to me.
Now that I don’t have much time I read, I have so much appreciation for an audiobook. And one of my favourites is Twenties Girl — by Sophie Kinsella… obviously.
If you aren’t aware of the story, Twenties Girl follows Lara Lington, a woman in her late twenties whose life is quietly falling apart after the collapse of both her business and relationship. While attending her elderly great-aunt Sadie’s funeral, Lara is shocked when Sadie’s ghost appears — not as the frail old woman everyone remembers, but as the glamorous, spirited twenty-three-year-old she once was during the roaring 1920s.
Sadie refuses to leave until Lara helps her recover a missing necklace she believes was stolen decades earlier. As Lara is dragged into the mystery, the two women form an unlikely friendship that slowly changes Lara’s confidence, outlook on life, and understanding of family history.
The novel blends comedy, romance and grief with a surprisingly emotional exploration of memory, identity, and the idea that the women who came before us never entirely leave us behind.
And it makes me cry every single time I listen to it.
There are some really thoughtful quotes that stick with me such as “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be” or “It’s just the way things are. And you can’t dwell on what might have been. You have to look at what is.”
Twenties Girl leaves you with a sense of urgency about life — that no day should be left unexplored. Not in a “girl boss”, toxic positivity kind of way, but through the words of a wise ghost who has already lived all her days and is gently urging you not to waste yours. It is a truly beautiful and comforting read that I implore everyone to try.
I’m trying to not sound like a GoodReads book review but when the person who touched your life in some way is an author, it can kind of feel like that I guess! I could list all the books Sophie wrote that mean something to me — such as The Undomestic Goddess, Remember Me? or any of the books published under her real name, Madeleine Wickham — but the list would be incredibly long.
If you ever want to explore the mind of a 2000s girl entering the world, open up a Sophie Kinsella novel. You’ll find all of the complexities, fantasies, hopes, fears and facets of a millennial right there in the pages. They’re more than just words on a page, every single book is a treasure trove of nostalgia from a simpler time. A slice of modern history.
Thank you, Sophie. For sharing your gift, your words and your view of the world with me. For inspiring me to read and to write. For showing a twenty-year-old girl how much bigger the world was. And thank you for giving us great-aunt Sadie, through whom we can all learn to live each day to the fullest.
“I’ve never felt old. Nobody feels old. […] I’ve always felt exactly the same: a girl in her twenties, all my life.”
Great-Aunt Sadie – Twenties Girl
