Kandace Chimbiri author page

Kandace Chimbiri biography

Kandace Chimbiri is a British children’s author, speaker and educator who writes primarily about Black history. She began by researching, writing and self-publishing children’s history books, establishing Golden Destiny Ltd in 2009. Her early titles include Step Back in Time to Ancient Kush, The Story of Early Ancient Egypt and Secrets of the Afro Comb: 6,000 Years of Art and Culture.

Chimbiri self-published The Story of the Windrush in 2018. Scholastic subsequently published a new edition in 2020 as the first book in her Our Story: New Black Histories series. The book combines historical information with voices from the Windrush Generation to introduce younger readers to the people who travelled from the Caribbean to Britain and their place in modern Black British history.

The series continued with The Story of Afro Hair: 5,000 Years of History, Fashion and Styles, illustrated by Joelle Avelino, which explores Afro hair through biology, history, fashion and culture. The book was longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards 2023. Chimbiri followed it with The Story of Britain’s Black Airmen, illustrated by Elizabeth Lander, examining the contributions of Black airmen and ground crew during the First and Second World Wars.

Her other work includes a Caribbean retelling of The Gingerbread Man, illustrated by Richy Sánchez Ayala and published by Bloomsbury Education, and a contribution to the Scholastic anthology The Place for Me: Stories About the Windrush Generation. She has also worked with museums on Black history exhibitions, trails, workshops and public-engagement projects.

In September 2024, Scholastic published The Story of Britain’s Black Nurses, illustrated by Jael Umerah-Makelemi and Simone Douglas, tracing the history and contributions of Black nurses from earlier African medical traditions through to the NHS and beyond.