The Mink War, Gene Kemp's first narrative poem, tells how the animal inhabitants of Whitsman's Wood are forced to band together and do battle with an army of mink on the run. Its verse is at once energetic and colourful and demonstrates the versatility of her skill as a writer.

As Gillian Cross has said: 'Gene Kemp has addressed a wide range of readers in a variety of genres. She has proved herself to be inventive and imaginative; she is a very funny writer who writes with a passionate concern for dignity and justice; there is a large space in her work for the underprivileged and the marginalized, and a grittiness in their representation which refuses any reader temptation to sentimentalize them.'