beware of the demon headmaster gillian cross

In execution, it comes across as merely stressful and slightly scary. Their parents absolutely refuse to listen and insist the school is wonderful. The slightest misbehavior leads to physical abuse, such as being forced out into the snow for an extended period with no coat or gloves. Likewise, think about life for the two boys: every day they go to a school where they are shut in a room while all the other zombie-like children conduct some secret activities. Afterward you can't remember what happened. You get physically manhandled by the precepts, and then dragged to the head's office. On your first day, all the other kids are strangely regimented and won't speak to you. Your new foster brothers drop ominous hints and are clearly afraid of the headmaster and other students. I mean, imagine you are little kid at a new school. In fact, it isn't even very scary - rather unrealistically so, given the premise. There are no actual demonic entities, and no souls are eternally damned in the making of this book. In early 2014, Cross became a patron for the Leamington Spa-based charity Cord, after their work in Sudan inspired her latest novel, After Tomorrow.and by Demon Cross really means Mean and Scary. She is now a full-time writer who often travels and gives talks in connection with her work.

A Map of Nowhere was highly commended for the 1988 Carnegie and she won the Medal two years later for Wolf (Oxford, 1990).īefore becoming a full-time writer, Cross held several different jobs, including acting as an assistant to a Member of Parliament. It was highly commended for the 1982 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject. She also completed The Dark Behind the Curtain, a horror story illustrated by David Parkins and published by Oxford University Press. Three years later she inaugurated The Demon Headmaster series of seven books (1982 to 2002). She married Martin Cross in 1967, and they had four children: Jonathan, Elizabeth, Anthony, and Katherine.Ĭross's first published book was The Runaway.

She was educated at North London Collegiate School, Somerville College, Oxford and the University of Sussex. Gillian Clare Arnold was born on Decemto parents Eric and Joan Arnold.

Beware of the demon headmaster gillian cross