Welcome to the Joy McAlpine-Black book page, where you can find news and updates on my latest book, Ann Shaw (1788-1854), which is out now.
Ann Shaw: Mother of Methodism in South Africa by Joy McAlpine Black
Ann Shaw (1788-1854), the author’s ancestor, was hailed by both immigrant and indigenous South Africans as their spiritual mother, the ‘Mother of Methodism in South Africa’. However, all accounts of early South African history have erased her influence, including those written by her husband, Rev. William Shaw, the ‘Wesley of Africa’. Had something necessitated Ann’s removal from the records? With tenacious scholarship, McAlpine-Black discovers Ann’s letters, her poetry, and the female threads of the lives that surrounded her—and weaves a family history into an international narrative. Ann Shaw lived at a time when women were discouraged from taking part in church ministry. Despite this, Ann journeyed from the English fens to the African Cape, becoming the most significant female catalyst for Methodism and education in South Africa. Now Methodism is its largest denomination. In addition to the challenges of women’s diseases, miscarriage, childbirth, family life, and patriarchy in the early nineteenth century, Ann’s story unearths the female roots of Methodism, a fresh and compelling history of South Africa, and the high cost of motherhood.
Choose from buying from Amazon or directly from the publisher, The Lutterworth Press, below.
‘Praise for Ann Shaw’
“What a triumph! In this painstakingly researched and beautifully written biography, Joy McAlpine-Black is rightly outraged at the way that such a significant figure as Ann Shaw has been written out of history. This is a compassionate account of a vocation most of us can’t imagine today but which is told with wit and energy. This biography will be indispensable to future researchers and has succeeded in restoring Shaw to her rightful place in the history of Methodism.”
Dr Midge Gillies, historian, author of multiple biographies including Atlantic Furies and Amy Johnson, and former Director of the Centre for Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge.
“You have brought Ann Shaw to life … Her character shines through, her strength, resilience, devotion to God, and her commitment to William. What she endured living in the Cape during those times, the wrench of being away from her family, friends, and country, yet still her determination to more than just endure, to thrive. As an African woman reading this, I salute Ann Shaw, and this is because of how you have told her story.”
Mbozi Haimbe, Winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Africa
This ground-breaking work on Ann Shaw means that the history of early Methodist mission in southern Africa has to be recalibrated. Joy McAlpine-Black’s meticulous research and accessible writing has brought into vivid focus the remarkable life of a woman who has been systematically marginalised by previous authors. The book is vital reading for all those interested in women’s contributions within societies and Christian environments in which what they achieved was seminal but often sidelined.
Dr Ian Randall, Senior Research Associate, Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide, and author of over twenty books and many articles on the history of Christianity, including Georgina Gollock: Pioneering Female Missiologist and Elizabeth Hewat: Historian, Missionary, Mould-Breaker.
“This is a compelling and unusual non-fiction tale of an early nineteenth-century life. To read it is to feel the presence of ghosts of so many women considered unremarkable in their time or culture… Here your skills as a novelist are blended with the research and accurate detail a non-fiction work requires.”
The Faculty of English, University of Cambridge
Ann Shaw talks & events
'Ann Shaw: (Hidden) Change and Conflict', Christian History Forum Conference, All Nations College, Thursday, 4 September 2025.
Ann Shaw book launch, Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, Saturday, 6 December 2025, 2-4 p.m. Please contact me or Lutterworth Press if you would like to be sent an invitation.
'Ann Shaw: Mother of Methodism in South Africa', Christian Missions in Global History seminar, Wednesday, 10 December, 5.30-7pm.
The catalyst for Ann Shaw (1788-1854) was reading the memoirs of my great-great-great-grandfather, William Shaw (1798–1872), the apostle of Wesleyanism quoted in every history of South Africa. It was then I discovered Ann, his wife, was almost entirely absent. I was curious and suspicious. Had something occurred to necessitate Ann’s removal from the records? Yes, it had.
Ann Shaw was a daughter of the Fens, a leader of the 1820 Settlers, and the Mother of Methodism in South Africa. After her 200 years in obscurity, I followed Ann to find her words to tell her story. I discovered how a publican’s daughter from the edge of the Wash influenced the education, alliances, and spirituality of a nation, but was erased by the men she trusted most. The narrative also laments the silencing of women in history and the high cost of motherhood.
If you enjoy reading literary nonfiction about historical women’s lives, or British and South African history, or are thinking of investigating your own family history, then Ann Shaw is for you.
I am currently editing Ann Shaw for a publisher and will announce a publication date, with a linked series of talks, in due course.
The Methodism Ann initiated at the Cape (Nelson Mandela’s faith) has now become the largest denomination in South Africa today, with over two million members. The time to reveal its strong female roots is long overdue.
Photography by Roddy Fox © Joy McAlpine-Black
Edited Out
The majority of a writer’s work is edited out (thank goodness). But sometimes there are small sections that writers keep and tuck away like loose scraps of paper in a drawer. This tab is my small drawer for edited out bits that group naturally under a theme. The first collation of edits includes three odd writerly coincidences that happened to me when writing Ann Shaw. Where it felt like Ann was stalking me as much as I was hunting her.