Finding Audrey

Sophie Kinsella was born in London in 1969. She went on to graduate from Oxford with a degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. In 1991, she married Henry Wickham, whom she met at Oxford. Kinsella began her writing career as a financial journalist before publishing her first novel at 26. She published that novel under her real name, Madeleine Wickham, and continued to publish under that name for her next six novels. She began using the pseudonym Sophie Kinsella when she published the first book in what would become the Shopaholic series. The first book in that series is titled The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic and was published in 2000. Besides the 10 books in the Shopaholic series, Kinsella has also published more than 10 other standalone books, including the YA novel Finding Audrey (2014) and the children’s book Fairy Mom and Me (2018). In 2022, Kinsella was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer.

Bullying has long presented a serious problem for students in schools, both globally and in the UK (where Finding Audrey takes place). For example, a 2024 study by the UK Department of Education  found that 40 percent of students in Year 10 had experienced some form of bullying in the past year. Six percent of those respondents said they experienced bullying every day. The links between school bullying and mental health issues are also well documented. A study cited by the Anti-Bullying Alliance in the UK in 2015 (around the time Finding Audrey was published) found that the rate of depression almost tripled for students who experienced frequent bullying when compared to students who were not victims of bullying (from 5.5 percent to 14.8 percent). A similar study, also cited by the Anti-Bullying Alliance in 2015, found that 6 percent of students who were not victims of bullying had some form of anxiety disorder, while 15 percent of victims of frequent bullying had some form of anxiety. At the same time, awareness around mental health concerns has also risen. The novel demonstrates that rise in awareness by showing how Anne and Chris support their daughter Audrey as she copes with mental health conditions and react understandingly as Audrey grapples with the impacts of trauma. The novel also portrays the stigma around questions related to mental health through the character of Natalie, who believes many myths about mental health that Audrey attempts to dispel. 

Sophie Kinsella is best known for her Shopaholic series of books that follow the protagonist Rebecca Bloomwood. The first book in that series is titled The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic. Kinsella’s Finding Audrey is a YA book that centers on topics of bullying and mental health—in particular, depression and social anxiety. One YA book that also focuses on mental health is John Green’s Turtles All the Way Down, which tells the story of a teenager grappling with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Another YA book that touches on similar themes is Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places, which centers on a teenage protagonist coping with bipolar disorder. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a YA book that addresses sexual assault, trauma, and depression, while It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini follows a teenage protagonist who checks himself into a psychiatric hospital. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is another YA book that delves into the subject of depression. Finding Audrey also mentions the books To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, works of classic American and British literature, respectively.