Agnes Annis: Mother and Missionary, a new biography by Markdale author Lynn Wyvill, will launch Saturday, November 26 at 11:00 a.m in the Fellowship Hall at Annesley United Church. The book reveals the life of a woman who lived in China and in several Ontario towns, including Markdale, Thornbury, and Owen Sound.

Agnes Gregg Davis spent her childhood in an orphanage, then married a Methodist minister. With their infant daughter, they left for West China in 1916. While the Reverend Stanley Annis served as a missionary, Agnes supervised the dormitory of the school for children of Canadian church workers in an atmosphere of cultural strain and historical drama. During their years in China, three of the couple's sons were born, including Lloyd who, as an adult, practised medicine in Owen Sound.

After returning to Canada, they moved to various charges of the newly-formed United Church of Canada. Always, Agnes lived as a dutiful minister's wife, raising her own children (including Bill, born in Thornbury), leading youth groups, and supporting her husband in his calling. Lynn Wyvill is the daughter of Mary Annis and Stanley Armstrong, who farmed in the Markdale area.

A writer since retiring from her teaching career, Wyvill has published poetry and essays in The Markdale Standard, The Sun Times, Mosaic, The Leaf, The V Book, and Brush Strokes. She self-published two collections: A Mother's Letters and Wild Clematis. She was Owen Sound and area Poet of the Month in 2009. Her mentor at the Humber School for Writers describes this work of creative non-fiction as “a family saga on two continents . . . told with great energy and depth.”

“I was intrigued by the role of memory in our interpretations of life,” says Wyvill. “I chose a few family photographs and began building stories with my mother's memories as the bricks and my imagination supplying the mortar.” In the book, she shares the challenges of researching Agnes Annis's early life, the joy of finding details to bring a past era to life, and reflections on the differing perspectives of women then and now.