AN author is aiming to create a buzz at the world's largest arts festival by turning his hand to stand-up comedy with a show written and performed from the perspective of a fly.

Private Eye cartoonist and former Who Wants To Be A Millionaire writer Mike Barfield said he would illustrate why flies are the most dangerous creatures on the planet in Swat! A Fly's Guide To Staying Alive at the Edinburgh Fringe, from August 23.

Mr Barfield, of Helperby, near Thirsk, said the family show, for which he will don a fly costume, had been inspired by his son Jake's obsession with carnivorous plants and was a good way to combine his comedy with his degree in botany and zoology.

He said: "The idea came to me that flies needed an SAS-style survival manual as even plants were out to get them.

"I say in the show, I don't like flies, but I do admire how marvellously adapted they are to survive - especially given a whole world of living things arrayed against them, ready to eat them and beat them.

"I also explain why flies buzz - it is due to their wings vibrating 400 times per second - meaning that houseflies actually buzz in the key of F."

The Swat! show, which follows Mr Barfield's book of the same name being named a recommended read by the Royal Entomological Society for National Insect week, features a demonstration of why flies are dangerous to man.

Mr Barfield said: "As they lack biting mouthparts, they need to make their food wet in order to suck it up, so they sick-up a bit of their previous meal - which may well have been deposited by a dog."

He said the show represented "unfinished business" for him as he had previously avoided performing at Edinburgh due to not having "the courage or the money" and would prepare for his Edinburgh run with a performance on Tuesday (July 7), at 6.30pm, at St Peter's School, Brafferton.

He said: "Now I have the courage, but still not the money, I am doing this family show as part of the Free Fringe at the cafe theatre of the Catholic cathedral, so they will no doubt be contravening all sorts of hygiene regulations by having a giant fly in there."

For details about the show and book, visit mikebarfield.co.uk