Citizens of Southampton are advised to watch out for a very large owl as well as the most awful Auntie in history.

They will be up against a brave little girl and her ghostly friend in the world premiere production of David Walliams’ Awful Auntie at Mayflower Theatre from Wednesday.

Awful Auntie tells the story of Stella, who when she sets off to visit London with her parents had no idea her life was in danger. Waking up from a coma three months later, only her Aunt Alberta can tell Stella what has happened. But not everything Aunt Alberta tells her turns out to be true and Stella quickly discovers she’s in for the fight of her life against her very own awful Auntie!

David Walliams explains how Awful Auntie came to be.

"It may not be the answer you were expecting," he says. "But I am obsessed with the film The Shining.

"I wanted to create a horror story where a child was trapped in a house with a dangerous relative, cut off from the outside world.

"As for the character herself I had a lot of fun creating Aunt Alberta. I am lucky enough to have three nice aunties, so no Alberta is not based on them.

"So in writing the book I let my imagination run riot which is normally the best way to go.Villains are always so much more fun than heroes.

"I wanted her to be funny as much as scary, which is something my literary hero Roald Dahl always did so brilliantly."

This funny and exciting new show is from Birmingham Stage Company, the award-winning producers who brought David Walliams’ Gangsta Granny to Mayflower Theatre.

Awful Auntie was published in September 2014 and went to No.1 in the children’s book chart for seven weeks. The paperback was published in February 2016 and became the best-selling children’s paperback of the year. Combined sales of the hardback and paperback have now reached over a million copies.

It has helped to make Walliams one of the country’s bestselling children’s authors, with four of his books charting in the 2016 children’s top ten.

Every family contains a fan of David Walliams’ books, so they won’t want to miss Awful Auntie when she comes to Mayflower Theatre - it’s awfully thrilling fun for everyone over 5!