Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Patti Callahan Henry is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of several novels, including Surviving Savannah and Becoming Mrs. Lewis. She is the recipient of the Christy Award, the Harper Lee Award for Alabama's Distinguished Writer of the Year Award, and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year. She is the cohost and cocreator of the popular weekly online live web show and podcast Friends and Fiction. A full-time author, mother of three, and grandmother of two, she lives in Mountain Brook, Alabama with her husband, Pat Henry.
Patti Callahan Henry's website
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You speak in the author's note about your discovery of Operation Pied Piper—a piece of history lost to time for many people. Were there other bits of history you discovered in your research for this novel?
Before I started writing this novel, I knew that British children had been sent to the country during World War II for their safety, but I'd been unaware of its operational name. As I dug a little deeper, curious about the impact of exile on the children of war, I discovered that this scheme had been given the title of a German legend about a piper who lures children away from their homes and town. Those children were never seen again. As I read and conducted my research, I wondered this: Why would the British government name a scheme to keep children safe after a legend of lost children? Curiosity often leads me to story, and this time was no different. Children weren't just sent to the country—they were also sent to America, Australia, and Canada by ship (sometimes with fatal results). WWII is full of untold stories, and in The Secret Book of Flora Lea I try to bring some of the Operation Pied Piper tales to light—from the small facts about how children sat in town halls while hearing the ringing voices of "...
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