Welcome to The Girlfriend Book Club’s July 2025 discussion! Shelly Emily, executive editor of The Girlfriend Newsletter, moderates this session featuring New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan Henry to discuss her novel, ‘The Story She Left Behind.’ Patti shares insights about her inspiration drawn from the real-life mystery of Barbara Newhall Follett and delves into the challenges and process of writing the book. She also talks about her future projects and writing routine, and answers questions from book club members. Stay tuned for conversation starters on our Girlfriend Book Club page, and don’t miss our upcoming picks, ‘The Book Club for Troublesome Women’ by Marie Boswick and ‘The Friends’ by Fredrik Backman.
Transcript for The Girlfriend Book Club’s Patti Callahan Henry’s interview on “The Story She Left Behind “
Shelley Emling: Welcome to The Girlfriend Book Club’s monthly discussion. I’m Shelley Emling, the executive editor of The Girlfriend newsletter. I also moderate the book club and our new Girlfriend Social Club. More than 100,000 The Girlfriend Book Club members chose The Story She Left Behind as our July pick.
As always, you all chose so well. It’s a fantastic read—one of my favorite books in recent years. I read it in a single weekend. We’re so happy to be joined tonight by New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan Henry. Welcome, Patti!
Patti Callahan Henry: I’m so happy to be here.
Shelley Emling: We’re thrilled to have you. I’m not going to start by asking you to explain what the book’s about, since I’m sure everyone watching has already read it. But I’d love to start with the inspiration behind the book. You mention in the author’s note that the real-life mystery of Barbara Newhall Follett inspired it. Can you talk a bit about that?
Patti Callahan Henry: Absolutely. First, let me say how happy I am to be here with your book club. And I have to say, Shelley, that wildflower field behind you—it looks like we’ve been dropped into the setting of my novel!
This is one of my favorite subjects: Where do ideas come from? That nebulous space where creatives decide to make something out of nothing. My novels have come from a lot of different places, but I can tell you exactly when I knew I wanted to write this one.
Initially, I thought I was going to write a novel about Beatrix Potter. I was researching her and discovered that as a young child, she created a coded language to keep her parents from reading her diary.
Shelley Emling: That’s so fascinating.
Patti Callahan Henry: I know, right? I bet 90% of people had never heard that unless they read my author’s note. So I started looking into other women authors who created their own languages. I began wondering: why would anyone make up a language? That’s when I discovered Barbara Newhall Follett—and I got that chill down my spine.
She was a child prodigy born in 1914 and published her first novel, The House Without Windows, at age 12. It was a children’s fantasy novel. Her life unraveled after that. She also created her own fantasy world and language.
By the time she was 27 or 28, she was married. Her husband admitted to having an affair. After an argument, she walked out of their apartment in Brookline, Massachusetts, and was never seen again.
Shelley Emling: Wow.
Patti Callahan Henry: All of her work, including the language she invented, is stored in 16 boxes at Columbia University—just gathering dust. I wanted to know who she was and what happened to her. Since her mystery was never solved, I fictionalized her life. My character’s name is Bronwyn because I didn’t want to give a real person a made-up ending.
Shelley Emling: So, how did you come across that story? Where were you?
Patti Callahan Henry: I was at home, researching authors who created their own languages on Google. I found an article in The Latham Quarterly—this man had written a long piece about Barbara. I also heard it on NPR. I printed the article, read it closely, and marked it up. I thought, if I’m this interested in this, there’s something here.
It took me a while to figure out what it would become. I spent almost a year writing a biofiction novel about Barbara, like Becoming Mrs. Lewis. But eventually, I realized I needed to fictionalize it more. I had come to love and respect her too much to create an imagined ending.
Shelley Emling: So, to confirm, did you originally plan to write about Beatrix Potter?
Patti Callahan Henry: Yes. Beatrix Potter fascinates me. I dove deep into her life and discovered she had created a coded language. She grew up in Victorian England in a strict, upper-class family. Her parents expected her to dress and marry well, but she was a wild little girl, making up stories, collecting natural objects, and turning her bedroom into a mini museum.
She didn’t want her parents to know what she thought about their world. The coded language was a form of rebellion. When I started researching Barbara, I realized both women were pushing back against societal norms. Beatrix lived long before Barbara—she was born in the 1800s—but both faced similar challenges.
Beatrix moved to the country and forged a life for herself. Barbara never got that chance.
Shelley Emling: You also wrote about the Great Smog of London, which sent Claire and Winnie to the Lake District. Was that based on actual events?
Patti Callahan Henry: Absolutely. The setting should feel like a character. If you pulled the story out of that setting, it wouldn’t be the same.
The Great Smog of 1952 was a real disaster. For four days in December, smog and pollution covered London. It was sulfuric and poisonous—a green fog. Thousands died during those days, and tens of thousands more suffered long-term effects.
I first heard about it while researching Becoming Mrs. Lewis. Then I saw it again on The Crown. I dove deep into research and knew that it would be a significant obstacle in my story. Winnie, born early with fragile lungs and thick glasses, would be in danger. Clara, trying to be a better mother than her own, ends up putting her child at risk. That tension—that contrast—was something I wanted to explore.
Shelley Emling: Was there a particular chapter or scene that was especially challenging to write?
Patti Callahan Henry: Yes. The scene where Bronwyn discovers what happened to her mother. I wanted to show her emotional reaction, but not just say, “She cried.” It had to be layered and processed. That chapter—and the ones before and after—were rewritten many times.
Shelley Emling: So it took you two years to write this?
Patti Callahan Henry: Yes. The first year I spent writing strictly about Barbara. Then I started over to fictionalize it. Like with Becoming Mrs. Lewis, I was initially doing biographical fiction. But with this one, I pivoted.
Shelley Emling: How did you choose South Carolina as one of the settings?
Patti Callahan Henry: I wanted to give Bronwyn something the real Barbara never had—happiness. A loving marriage, a daughter she adores, a small town that grounds her.
I’ve spent 20 years in Bluffton, South Carolina, outside Savannah. My boys grew up there in the summers. It’s a place that’s grounding and mystical, much like the Lake District. There’s this Irish concept of a “thin place,” where the seen and unseen are close together. I wanted to draw that parallel.
Shelley Emling: Are there other authors besides Beatrix Potter who created their languages?
Patti Callahan Henry: Definitely. J.R.R. Tolkien created Elvish. C.S. Lewis made up a few words for Narnia. Madeleine L’Engle and Dr. Seuss made up words, like “nerd,” which entered the lexicon. Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky gave us words like “tulgey.”
Few authors create full languages, mostly in fantasy. George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones includes Dothraki, though that was developed by a linguist for the show.
Shelley Emling: If this is someone’s first Patti Callahan Henry book, where should they go next?
Patti Callahan Henry: Start with The Secret Book of Flora Lea, which came before this. Then, Once Upon a Wardrobe is set in the English countryside. Becoming Mrs. Lewis is about the wife of C.S. Lewis. Surviving Savannah is set in Georgia and deals with a long-lost shipwreck. I’d start there and work backward.
Shelley Emling: Do you remember all the details from your previous books?
Patti Callahan Henry: Oh, heck no! I can talk about the last six or seven. The earlier ones? I know the plots, but character names and details get fuzzy.
Shelley Emling: One of our members wanted to know: Do you think the English language has enough words to express everything we need to say?
Patti Callahan Henry: What a great question. When I was researching language, I wondered why Barbara made one up. Tolkien created Elvish because he was obsessed with language and mythology. He invented the language first, then wrote the books.
With Barbara, I believe English didn’t have the right words for how she felt, especially about the natural world. I studied Gaelic a little during COVID—just enough to be dangerous—and it has 35 words for “field.” That suggests nature needs more words than English provides.
Barbara’s invented language often centered on emotion and nature—things she didn’t feel English captured well.
Shelley Emling: What’s your daily writing routine like?
Patti Callahan Henry: When I’m home—which I finally am now—I write from about 5:30 a.m. to noon. I started this routine when my kids were little. I had to get up before them to write. That habit stuck.
I don’t check email or social media first. I grab coffee and go straight to work. For me, the muse only shows up when I put my butt in the chair.
Shelley Emling: What are you working on next?
Patti Callahan Henry: I’m excited—and a little scared—about my next book. It’s about a 14-year-old girl named Emma and her mother Jenny, who head to the North Carolina mountains in 1972. Jenny is teaching at a struggling school. Emma goes on a youth retreat, gets accidentally left behind during a hike, and lacks survival skills.
It’s both harrowing and mystical. It also intersects with a town secret. The idea came from two sources: a hiking accident I had in Tennessee years ago and the story of Juliane Koepcke, who, at age 14, survived a plane crash and 14 days alone in the Amazon.
Shelley Emling: Are you always collecting story ideas in your everyday life?
Patti Callahan Henry: Always. If anything gives me that tingle down my spine, I know I shouldn’t ignore it.
Shelley Emling: Any recent or upcoming book recommendations?
Patti Callahan Henry: So many! Lisa Scottoline’s The Unraveling of Julia Green. Jo Piazza has a funny thriller about #tradwives—I think it’s called Everyone Is Lying to You—Kristy Woodson Harvey’s Beach House Rules.
For something heavier, Adam Ross’s Playworld is a beautifully written novel about a child actor in 1970s New York City.
Shelley Emling: Do you ever abandon projects if they’re not working?
Patti Callahan Henry: I’ve abandoned a few early on, within a few months. But sometimes I pivot. I tried writing a novel about Florence Nightingale—got about 25,000 words in—and realized the most interesting part to me was her rebellion. That story became an Audible Original called Wild Swan, narrated by Cynthia Erivo.
Shelley Emling: Last question—is there any talk of The Story She Left Behind becoming a film?
Patti Callahan Henry: Hollywood flirts, but nothing solid yet. They’re like bad boyfriends—call, flirt, never follow through.
Shelley Emling: The Girlfriend is all about female friendship. What do you love to do with your girlfriends?
Patti Callahan Henry: I love this question! Next week, I’m meeting my three best college friends in the mountains. We’ll hike, talk about family and books, laugh, and cook. We only see each other once yearly, but it always feels like yesterday.
Shelley Emling: How was turning 60?
Patti Callahan Henry: I thought it would be hard, but I’m doing everything I love. What more could I want?
Shelley Emling: Thank you, Patti! The Story She Left Behind is our July pick. Stay on the Girlfriend Book Club page for conversation starters. Next month’s book is The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick, and in September we’ll read My Friends by Fredrik Backman. The authors will join us on the third Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m
Patti Callahan Henry: Oh! I interviewed Fredrik Backman, who lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania! There’s a video of it somewhere—Midtown Reader hosted it.
Shelley Emling: That’s amazing! He’ll be joining us in September, and I’ll be sure to tell him you said hello.
Patti Callahan Henry: Please do!
Shelley Emling: Goodnight, everyone, and thank you again, Patti.
Patti Callahan Henry: Goodnight, everyone!
