David Kimble was born in Sussex in 1921. He took his degree in Modern Studies at Reading University, where he was President of the Union. During the war he was a Lieutenant in the R.N.V.R. and served in trawlers in Western Approaches doing meteorological research. In 1945 he was appointed Staff Tutor in Berkshire for the Oxford University Delegacy for Extra-Mural Studies. In 1948 he was sent to the Gold Coast as Oxford's long-range Resident Tutor, and since 1949 has been Director of Extra-Mural Studies at the University College of the Gold Coast. .In 1950 he founded the West African Affairs series of pamphlets. He has travelled widely in West Africa, and he has recently visited the Sudan, Jamaica, and South Afrika. He and his wife are joint editors of the Penguin West African Series. They have two daughters.
