Agnes Louise Storrie was born in
Glenelg, South Australia on 23 August 1864. She was the third daughter of James and Agnes Storrie (née Tassie). She was educated at the
Advanced School for Girls in Adelaide. Storrie was an associate member of the Glenelg Literary Association. Her poem "What the overseer told me" was award second prize by the South Australian’s Literary Societies' Union in September 1887. In the same competition her "Grapes From a Thorn" won first prize for a novelette and was subsequently published in the
Adelaide Observer. On 10 July 1890 Storrie married John Wilson Kettlewell at the Congregational Church in Glenelg. Following her marriage she moved to Sydney, home of her husband. A volume of her poetry, titled
Poems, was first published in Sydney in 1899. A review in
The Sydney Morning Herald referred to it as a "small volume of pretty verse", while the ''
Adelaide Advertiser's'' critic said "all express deep feeling, and show an exalted view of the poet's calling". A review published in 1912 said that "Agnes L. Storrie has a wonderful knowledge of our own country, and the lonesome out-back." In 1899 she and her husband edited the
Tourist guide to China, Japan, islands and ports en route, Australia and Tasmania for the Eastern and Australian Steamship Co., Ltd. Two of her poems, "Twenty Gallons of Sleep" and "A Confession", were included in
Bertram Stevens’
Anthology of Australia Verse, published by
Angus & Robertson in 1906.
Marion Miller Knowles wrote an article, "Australian Women of Note", for the
Advocate in 1922. She said that Storrie's "poems in a mystic vein are as musical as an infant's lullaby". == Wattle Day League ==