Pure Dead Brilliant [Hardcover]

Reading a novel by Debi Gliori is an experience like no other you will ever have with a book in your hands. They are journeys into as imaginative and chaotic a mind as it is possible to explore with words on a page. Pure Dead Brilliant is the latest instalment in the crazy lives of the Strega-Borgia family in their country pile of StregaSchloss in Scotland. Following on from Pure Dead Magic and Pure Dead Wicked, this is an in-your-face adventure that is utterly exhausting and delightfully surreal.

The cast of characters are as multitudinous and as colourful as before. Young Titus Strega-Borgia is on the threshold of inheriting his grandfather's millions, and it is driving a wedge between him and his estranged sister Pandora. Lucifer Di S'Embowelli Borgia is the disfigured, twisted uncle of Titus who thinks the money should be his and wants to kill Titus to get it. Damp Strega-Borgia is the infant sister of Titus and Pandora who just happens to be realising that she is a powerful magician and is causing mayhem with her youthful magic games. Fiamma D'Infer is an impostor student witch who is really Astoroth--a second minister of the Hadean executive who has lost an item most precious to his "Boss" that he must recover at all costs. Unfortunately, this item is somewhere in StregaSchloss and this devil in disguise will stop at nothing to get it. It's all a recipe for much mirth and hammy disaster.

Fast and funny, exotic and madcap, Pure Dead Brilliant is populated by a menagerie of witches, dragons, rats, spiders and mythical beasts that are all thoroughly entertaining. You won't forget this book in a hurry. Suitable for ages 10 and over) --John McLay

A third outing for the highly original, madcap, magical Strega-Borgia family.

There's trouble brewing at StregaSchloss! When Signora Strega-Borgia invites some would-be witches to stay, weird things begin to happen. Pandora can't resist the temptation of time travel - and Titus picks up a strange and deadly computer virus. Are they falling under the witches' spell? Or is the ghost of the Strega-Borgias' past coming back to haunt them all?

There's trouble brewing at StregaSchloss!

When Signora Strega-Borgia invites some would-be witches to stay, weird things begin to happen. Pandora can't resist the temptation of time travel - and Titus picks up a strange and deadly computer virus. Are they falling under the witches' spell? Or is the ghost of the Strega-Borgia's past coming back to haunt them all . . . ?

Debi Gliori is the author and illustrator of many books for children, including the very popular Mr Bear series. She won the Children's Book Award picture book section, and was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1997. Her backlist in Doubleday/Corgi includes TELL ME SOMETHING HAPPY BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP and THE VERY SMALL. PURE DEAD MAGIC, the start of a trilogy, was her first novel. The second part, PURE DEAD WICKED was published in April 2002. Debi lives in Scotland, near Edinburgh.