Horrid Henry is a selfish little monster; hardly the role model one wants for one’s children.

Yet kids love his un-PC antics and –— perhaps more importantly from an educational standpoint — boys like to read about him.

The skill of author Francesca Simon, right, lies in creating instantly recognisable characters in everyday situations, and magnifying them into extreme and amusing caricatures. Henry is every parent’s nightmare, while his brother Perfect Peter is a dream child, who does everything he is asked.

Next door lives Moody Margaret, Henry’s arch enemy, whose bossy relations with other girls are horribly true. She and Henry clash at home and at school, where their class is ruled by Miss Battle-Axe. And then there are Henry’s parents, who really need parenting classes; the way they favour Peter over Henry is terrible.

Whereas the CITV television series can be rather flat and shrill, in the books Simon’s sly wit shines through. In A Helping of Horrid Henry, three books are included in one volume: Horrid Henry’s Nits, Horrid Henry Gets Rich Quick and Horrid Henry’s Haunted House.

The stories follow a similar format; Henry faces a situation he doesn’t like and dreams up a scheme that will involve him coming out on top. So, for example, in Horrid Henry’s Nits, to ensure he won’t have to use the dreaded nit shampoo again, he makes the nits jump from his head to everyone else’s in the class.

Two new books, Horrid Henry’s Double Dare and Moody Margaret Strikes Back, have been published together (with whoopee cushion) for April Fool’s Day. As the two argue over who has the best club, they make their friends undergo a series of gruesome initiation tests and tell a series of jokes. The old ones are still the best!

Francesca Simon is at the Oxford Literary Festival on Sunday at 3pm. For fans who want to see their hero in person, Horrid Henry: Live and Horrid is at the Playhouse from April 15 to 18.