Gene Kemp

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.