What do you think?
Rate this book
The Demon Headmaster #2
The Prime Minister's Brain
general wear to edges
176 pages, Paperback
First published June 25, 1985
26 people are currently reading
178 people want to read
About the author
Gillian Cross
148 books86 followersGillian Cross was born Gillian Arnold in 1945. She was educated at North London Collegiate School, Somerville College, Oxford and the University of Sussex. Although now a full-time writer who often travels and gives talks in connection with her work, she has had a number of informal jobs including being an assistant to a Member of Parliament. For eight years she also sat on the committee which advises ministers about public libraries.
She is married to Martin Cross and they have four grown-up children, two sons and two daughters.
She is married to Martin Cross and they have four grown-up children, two sons and two daughters.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
November 1, 2018
Dinah is now an official part of the Hunter family and life is good.
When she sees a computer completion she decides to take part but all the kids are becoming a little TOO focused on the game "Octopus dare" and who is actually running this competition?
The headmaster is back and and plotting another fiendish plan to take over the nation.
Only Dinah and her friends can stop him, but will they be in time...?
Clever and inventive this is a highly enjoyable children's novel.
When she sees a computer completion she decides to take part but all the kids are becoming a little TOO focused on the game "Octopus dare" and who is actually running this competition?
The headmaster is back and and plotting another fiendish plan to take over the nation.
Only Dinah and her friends can stop him, but will they be in time...?
Clever and inventive this is a highly enjoyable children's novel.
March 25, 2021
I was a bit disappointed, although neither of my children (aged 7 and 10) were. I found this a bit less charming than the first book, and it didn't grip me as much (particularly in the second half).
May 15, 2021
A worthy sequel to The Demon Headmaster. The subverting of free will looms once again as a terrifying middle-grade threat, to be countered by a group of (argumentative, bickering) friends all of whom bring different attributes and foibles to bear. Addictive reading.
June 30, 2017
Three and a half stars from me!
The Prime Minister's Brain, first published in 1985 by Puffin Books is another of our Kid-Lit books with a bit of history behind it. It's the follow up to The Demon Headmaster which Chrissi and I reviewed in our Kid Lit challenge last year and was also one of our favourite childhood reads. Reading The Prime Minister's Brain as an adult was a real nostalgia trip for me and, as a sequel, although it doesn't quite reach the dizzying heights of brilliance as The Demon Headmaster did, was still a great reading experience and a nice journey down memory lane.
In The Prime Minister's Brain, Dinah has been officially adopted by the Hunter family and has two new brothers, Lloyd and Harvey and a host of new friends who all teamed up in The Demon Headmaster to form the unstoppable group SPLAT aka Society For The Protection Of Our Lives Against Them. In this story, there is a new craze going around the school, an addictive computer game with a puzzle to solve called Octopus Dare. Clever Dinah manages to solve the puzzle and is invited to London to compete in a challenge with dozens of other children (or Brains). Dinah is slightly worried and a little uneasy about the project so the children of SPLAT decide to make a holiday of it and accompany her. When they get there, they are right to be wary. The competition turns out to be a lot more sinister than they could have expected and Dinah begins to realise that the organiser of the challenge has much darker and frankly, insane reasons in wanting to solve a computer puzzle.
As I mentioned before it was lovely to re-visit the world of The Demon Headmaster again. I remember reading the sequel as a child and enjoying it but still favouring the original and first story. I felt the same this time round but still relished the experience for the memories it brought back. The characters are wonderful, particularly the children although I found myself slightly more irritated by grumpy little Ingrid as an adult! Of course, the Demon Headmaster himself is fantastic and your quintessential villain, perfectly drawn by Gillian Cross and ever so readable and easy to hate. I understand there might be about four books in the entire series and I don't think Chrissi and I have ever read more than the first two so there is potential to carry on and see what dastardly deeds that rogue headmaster gets up to next. However, part of me doesn't want to spoil the nostalgic feelings I do have towards the series so far so we'll have to wait and see!
For my full review and many more please visit my blog at http://www.bibliobeth.com
The Prime Minister's Brain, first published in 1985 by Puffin Books is another of our Kid-Lit books with a bit of history behind it. It's the follow up to The Demon Headmaster which Chrissi and I reviewed in our Kid Lit challenge last year and was also one of our favourite childhood reads. Reading The Prime Minister's Brain as an adult was a real nostalgia trip for me and, as a sequel, although it doesn't quite reach the dizzying heights of brilliance as The Demon Headmaster did, was still a great reading experience and a nice journey down memory lane.
In The Prime Minister's Brain, Dinah has been officially adopted by the Hunter family and has two new brothers, Lloyd and Harvey and a host of new friends who all teamed up in The Demon Headmaster to form the unstoppable group SPLAT aka Society For The Protection Of Our Lives Against Them. In this story, there is a new craze going around the school, an addictive computer game with a puzzle to solve called Octopus Dare. Clever Dinah manages to solve the puzzle and is invited to London to compete in a challenge with dozens of other children (or Brains). Dinah is slightly worried and a little uneasy about the project so the children of SPLAT decide to make a holiday of it and accompany her. When they get there, they are right to be wary. The competition turns out to be a lot more sinister than they could have expected and Dinah begins to realise that the organiser of the challenge has much darker and frankly, insane reasons in wanting to solve a computer puzzle.
As I mentioned before it was lovely to re-visit the world of The Demon Headmaster again. I remember reading the sequel as a child and enjoying it but still favouring the original and first story. I felt the same this time round but still relished the experience for the memories it brought back. The characters are wonderful, particularly the children although I found myself slightly more irritated by grumpy little Ingrid as an adult! Of course, the Demon Headmaster himself is fantastic and your quintessential villain, perfectly drawn by Gillian Cross and ever so readable and easy to hate. I understand there might be about four books in the entire series and I don't think Chrissi and I have ever read more than the first two so there is potential to carry on and see what dastardly deeds that rogue headmaster gets up to next. However, part of me doesn't want to spoil the nostalgic feelings I do have towards the series so far so we'll have to wait and see!
For my full review and many more please visit my blog at http://www.bibliobeth.com
June 10, 2024
I like this book because the demon headmaster is tricked by the SPLAT members again. I also liked the way he found another way to hypnotise people even some of the SPLAT members.
Dinah Hunter(Glass) is still intelligent and this helps her get through to the finals of the Junior Computer Brain of the Year. She soon realises that everyone who has got through has played right into the Demon Headmasters hands.
She makes friends with a girl called Camilla and her brother Robert. She is also introduced to another girl called Bess.
Robert thinks there is something wrong with the octopus and that makes Dinah start to think.
The rest of the SPLAT members keep trying to get back to Dinah who was separated from them.
This book is an adventure as the SPLAT members have to stop the demon headmaster before it is to late.
There were no illustrations.
This book (inspired the 2nd half of The Demon Headmaster Series 1 on CBBC) kept me on the edge of my chair while reading it. I could never put the book down.
I can’t wait to read the next one!
Dinah Hunter(Glass) is still intelligent and this helps her get through to the finals of the Junior Computer Brain of the Year. She soon realises that everyone who has got through has played right into the Demon Headmasters hands.
She makes friends with a girl called Camilla and her brother Robert. She is also introduced to another girl called Bess.
Robert thinks there is something wrong with the octopus and that makes Dinah start to think.
The rest of the SPLAT members keep trying to get back to Dinah who was separated from them.
This book is an adventure as the SPLAT members have to stop the demon headmaster before it is to late.
There were no illustrations.
This book (inspired the 2nd half of The Demon Headmaster Series 1 on CBBC) kept me on the edge of my chair while reading it. I could never put the book down.
I can’t wait to read the next one!
May 16, 2020
Just finished reading my eight-year-old The Demon Headmaster #2 (originally published, in 1985, as ‘The Prime Minister’s Brain’). Set in 2020, the Demon Headmaster has gone all Woke, and tries to take control of Boris Johnson’s brain in an attempt to stop him easing lockdown measures and putting the economy before lives. It’s not a bad read but a couple of levels down from the brilliant original. It gives me a real sense of nostalgia to read a kids’ book where the children are constantly calling each other ‘stupid’, ‘idiot’, ‘thick’ and ‘fat’. These days the dominant ideology is to #bekind, and those good old days are gone.
July 21, 2018
It was an unusual title of the book that drew me in. I think children will find humour in the 'demon headmaster'. I thought the book was quite creative in its plot. I think the book kept the reader wanting to find out what happened due to the mysteriousness of the octopus. I enjoyed this book, however, I am not left wanting to read the other books in the series. Yet I would still recommend this book to children as I think it's quite different to other books I have come across.
August 11, 2024
Lloyd's pride and arrogance spoilt this book a little for me. The big twist was known very early on by the characters but his unwillingness to listen to others or show that he wasn't the saviour meant that problems piled up a little longer than they needed too. This was the first demon headmaster book I ever read and I will never forget the OCTOPUS...S...S..
Sorry lost my train of thought there. A fun book with a great continuation of the chaos and some growth in many of the characters as well as Dinah being more self aware and willing to fight back. I loved seeing more of his idea of order as well as what he believes the world should be like. It showed even better than before.
Sorry lost my train of thought there. A fun book with a great continuation of the chaos and some growth in many of the characters as well as Dinah being more self aware and willing to fight back. I loved seeing more of his idea of order as well as what he believes the world should be like. It showed even better than before.
May 29, 2022
It took me a while to get in bro this book because it just didn’t get my attention. I found the children irritating and just hard to like in this book but in the first one they were much more likeable.
December 28, 2025
The 2nd book, whilst was good, but not as good as the original.
With watching the TV adaption many times, there are some significant changes, but still the very scary Headmaster as he tries to hack into the Prime Minister computer so he can try and rule the world which are his plans.
With watching the TV adaption many times, there are some significant changes, but still the very scary Headmaster as he tries to hack into the Prime Minister computer so he can try and rule the world which are his plans.
November 11, 2017
We really enjoyed reading this as a family. It was refreshing for a sequel, it wasn't just a re-tread of the original. Gripping finale too!
October 12, 2024
Great sequel! Not just a cheap carbon copy of the first book, but genuinely engaging and exciting plot.
October 14, 2024
creative idea, ingrid was lowkey a bitch in this book.
May 24, 2025
I think this book is so complicated but easy to read. This book shows just how dina is . how smart she is. I would totally get this book really good
June 11, 2025
Fun, bit read straight after the original it doesn't pack as much of a twist!
June 16, 2015
The sequel to The Demon Headmaster! I enjoyed this one a great deal more than its predecessor.
The computer game plotline dragged me right into the book when I was younger, and it did this time too. The book was written in the 80s, and reading the descriptions of these old-fashioned computers the characters were using was quite amusing. I loved that Cross made Dinah carry one of these monumental contraptions across London on the tube. She must have been having a laugh. No one used a mouse either, all of the computer activities were command based. Press O to open, it was brilliantly retro. I also really liked the font changes in the novel which illustrated words appearing on a computer screen, à la:
ERROR!
Very enthralling.
The characters end up splitting up at the beginning of the novel, and the chapters are set out nicely to alternate between their different narratives, which varies the plot slightly and gives us an all-seeing eye of sorts.
Some of the language used is quite dated, and it reads sometimes as a jolly-oh Enid Blyton type of novel. This strangely contrasted with the futuristic, mechanical feel of the novel, and felt quite odd. The characters in the book do remind me a lot of the Famous Five, and to associate them with computers and the future is just completely bizarre.
I didn't realise there were six books in this series! I have only ever read the first two. I doubt I'll track down the remaining four, however, as I'm not too sure it would be worth my while.
I much preferred this novel to the last, but perhaps I am just remembering my feelings on first reading it. I remember absolutely loving it. I probably won't visit The Demon Headmaster and SPLAT again for a long while, though.
This is the end of my nostalgic readings for now. I am now moving onto some very thick books and I am excited, but slightly nervous about the imminent book avalanche that will no doubt occur when I try to remove the next one from my shelves.
The computer game plotline dragged me right into the book when I was younger, and it did this time too. The book was written in the 80s, and reading the descriptions of these old-fashioned computers the characters were using was quite amusing. I loved that Cross made Dinah carry one of these monumental contraptions across London on the tube. She must have been having a laugh. No one used a mouse either, all of the computer activities were command based. Press O to open, it was brilliantly retro. I also really liked the font changes in the novel which illustrated words appearing on a computer screen, à la:
ERROR!
Very enthralling.
The characters end up splitting up at the beginning of the novel, and the chapters are set out nicely to alternate between their different narratives, which varies the plot slightly and gives us an all-seeing eye of sorts.
Some of the language used is quite dated, and it reads sometimes as a jolly-oh Enid Blyton type of novel. This strangely contrasted with the futuristic, mechanical feel of the novel, and felt quite odd. The characters in the book do remind me a lot of the Famous Five, and to associate them with computers and the future is just completely bizarre.
I didn't realise there were six books in this series! I have only ever read the first two. I doubt I'll track down the remaining four, however, as I'm not too sure it would be worth my while.
I much preferred this novel to the last, but perhaps I am just remembering my feelings on first reading it. I remember absolutely loving it. I probably won't visit The Demon Headmaster and SPLAT again for a long while, though.
This is the end of my nostalgic readings for now. I am now moving onto some very thick books and I am excited, but slightly nervous about the imminent book avalanche that will no doubt occur when I try to remove the next one from my shelves.
May 6, 2016
Book Review
Title: The Demon Headmaster And The Prime Minister's Brain
By: Gillian Cross
A great book for computer game lovers, this book is part of The Demon Headmaster series. It is a speculative fiction book. This book is an easy read because the vocabulary used is easy to understand. Gillian Cross is one of the best children's novelists and is also a winner of the Carnegie Medal. This book is for children between 10 - 12 years.
Dinah is likeable because like any other teenager she likes playing computer games. The Demon Headmaster is unlikable as he is nasty, mean and evil. The challenge is a computer competition the Demon headmaster has set up for all the children; and Dinah is participating. The Demon headmaster has locked up her friends up in a room and unless Dinah completes the game her friends will not be set free so who will win this time Dinah or the Demon Headmaster…
My favourite character in the book is Dinah because she never gives up and keeps trying to hack the computer. The setting in the book is the present. It is a fantasy world. The computer competition is a big draw and it made me want to read more.
I was bored and not pleased in the beginning because the starting was not very interesting. I did not enjoy the story because it did not match my interests and I don't enjoy playing computer games. I dislike the author's writing style because I did not find it very interesting.I rate this book 4/10.
I recommend this book to preteens who are computer game addicts.
Title: The Demon Headmaster And The Prime Minister's Brain
By: Gillian Cross
A great book for computer game lovers, this book is part of The Demon Headmaster series. It is a speculative fiction book. This book is an easy read because the vocabulary used is easy to understand. Gillian Cross is one of the best children's novelists and is also a winner of the Carnegie Medal. This book is for children between 10 - 12 years.
Dinah is likeable because like any other teenager she likes playing computer games. The Demon Headmaster is unlikable as he is nasty, mean and evil. The challenge is a computer competition the Demon headmaster has set up for all the children; and Dinah is participating. The Demon headmaster has locked up her friends up in a room and unless Dinah completes the game her friends will not be set free so who will win this time Dinah or the Demon Headmaster…
My favourite character in the book is Dinah because she never gives up and keeps trying to hack the computer. The setting in the book is the present. It is a fantasy world. The computer competition is a big draw and it made me want to read more.
I was bored and not pleased in the beginning because the starting was not very interesting. I did not enjoy the story because it did not match my interests and I don't enjoy playing computer games. I dislike the author's writing style because I did not find it very interesting.I rate this book 4/10.
I recommend this book to preteens who are computer game addicts.
April 29, 2009
Oh man, the TV series of this was so awesome! I remember being sick in bed and having a portable TV in my room so I could watch it in the mornings without getting up. Sweeeeet. (Except to turn the TV on, no remote.) (We only had one TV at a time growing up, but one year it half-died and we sent it off to be fixed, and my mother hired a small one to tide us over. It was hire by the month, and we got our set back within the week, so for the rest of that month I had the spare in my room.)
August 19, 2020
Two exciting and well written novels by Gillian Cross. The first two of the Demon Headmaster series. I was familiar with these stories as a child, both in book form and through the television show.
I throughly enjoyed both novels, but found The Prime Minister's Brain a little more engaging than the first novel.
I read this from childhood nostaglia but I think this would be a great book for older children and teenagers.
I throughly enjoyed both novels, but found The Prime Minister's Brain a little more engaging than the first novel.
I read this from childhood nostaglia but I think this would be a great book for older children and teenagers.
February 28, 2009
I brought this book home from the library for my sister to read (it is the 2nd in the Demon Headmaster series. Before this I had brought home the 1st in the series on tape so I thought she may like to read this one) but she thought it was too difficult so I ended up reading it.
January 30, 2015
My favourite in the series (for some reason the first one I read), this uses the unlikely concept of computers - something that was relatively new to shcools - as the Head Master's latest scheme for controlling kids.
March 16, 2013
I'd never actually read this one before. I would have enjoyed it if I had though, and given the time of release I can see how the modernity would have captured kid's minds.
April 18, 2013
awesome
February 23, 2017
Prime Minister's Brain (The Demon Headmaster) by Gillian Cross (2001)
April 23, 2017
Great book! I was hooked. Recommend this book =)
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews