1926년 영국 스태퍼드셔에서 태어났으며, 대학에서 영어학을 배우고 초등학교 교사로 일했다. 어린이의 학교생활을 독창적이고 생생하게 그린 학교 이야기와 판타지 풍의 유령 이야기를 잘 쓰는데, ‘크리클피트 초등학교’ 씨리즈로 호평을 받았고, 그중 하나인 『내 이름은 타이크 The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler』로 1977년 카네기 메달을 받았다. 『탬워스 돼지의 전성기 The Prime of Tamworth Pig』(1972), 『시계탑의 유령 The Clock Tower Ghost』(1981) 등을 냈다.

Born in 1926 in Staffordshirel, U.K, Gene Kemp’s best known work is The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler. Published in 1977, this was the first book to receive both the Carnegie Medal and the Other Award. The continuing success of Tyke Tiler has made it a modern classic. It is one of several novels set in Cricklepit Combined School – the others are Gowie Corby Plays Chicken, Charlie Lewis Plays for Time, Zowey Corby and the Black Cat Tunnel and Just Ferret. Kemp’s main characters are often rebels (Tyke Tiler, Gowie Corby) and the author takes the unusual risk of creating characters who readers will recognise but not necessarily identify with. Gene Kemp is widely credited for giving the school story a new lease of life. The Cricklepit stories demonstrate her talent at realistic fiction, but there is another fantastical dimension to this author’s work – revealed in such novels as Jason Bodger and The Priory Ghost and The Hairy Hands.