I was born and grew up in Central Province of Kenya. From my bedroom window I could see the top of Mount Kenya on clear mornings. I used to walk to school until I went to high school. When it rained I got really wet. I learnt to cover my books so that they would not get wet. On the way to school I met all sorts of little animals like frogs, squirrels, hedgehogs, mice. Some animals really scared me and I ran away from them. Some of these animals come up in my stories.

I used to visit my grandmother so that I would hear stories in the evening. My grandmother never told storied before sunset. Her favorite time was when she as cooking. She always made the best meals when her grandchildren were around.

My favorite subject was English because the teacher read us stories and gave us books to read for ourselves. I enjoyed books by Kathleen Arnott. I enjoyed especially the stories about the hare. I also liked Aesop’s Stories. I wished I could write like Arnott when I grew up.

I wrote some silly stories and poems from the time I was in primary school and through high school but I did not keep them safely. I read them to my friends in school and then forgot all about them. I always wish I had given them to my father to keep for me.

I wanted to be a writer when I finished school but my career teacher who was also my English teacher in high school said I would do very well as a librarian since I loved books. She said a job like that would also give me ideas on things to write.

After graduation form college I went to teach in the same girls’ high school I had graduated from which was a lot of fun because I knew the secrets of the students. Some were surprised that I knew where they made illegal chocolate drink after lights out. Well boarding schools are strange places and they have many rules to keep everything in order. After doing Master of Arts in folklore I went to teach in a College. Then I became very interested in learning more about children’s books. I did a Doctorate degree concentrating on how good children’s books are written.

I write children’s books in either English or Swahili. Swahili is the most widely spoken language in Africa, especially East and Central Africa. The leaders of African countries want this language to be the official language for the whole of Africa. My first children’s book was published in 1982. This was ten years after publishing my first book.

I speak four languages. Kikuyu, Swahili, English and Kihaya. I learnt Kihaya when I got married to a Tanzanian from the northwestern side of Lake Victoria in Tanzania.