After a gap of five years, a new book about the Demon Headmaster will surely be as eagerly anticipated as the next Harry Potter, and Gillian Cross has got there first. In Facing the Demon Headmaster (Oxford University Press pound;4.99), the evil megalomaniac must get his long-time schoolgirl adversary Dinah to submit to his power before he can take control of the country.

At the centre of the plot is a chain of discos called Purple, where a charismatic masked DJ is causing hysteria among the ever-increasing crowds of young teenagers desperate to participate. It doesn’t take long for SPLAT - the Society for the Protection of our Lives Against Them - to realise that the Headmaster must be behind it all. As they start their investigations, Dinah is sidetracked on a mission to discover whether her father is still alive. The two strands of the plot twist and turn and tension is high as the evil one almost gets there. Fans in Year 4 and above will not be disappointed.