THE Great Yorkshire Fringe is spreading its wings in York beyond its summer festival to present journalist, writer and show host Jon Ronson at the Central Methodist Hall, St Saviourgate, on Friday night.

Welshman Ronson, who now lives in New York, will be in York for Jon Ronson – Psychopath Night, in which he will recount the adventure of a lifetime: the humorous, terrifying and compelling events that led to his bestselling book, The Psychopath Test.

As with the book, Ronson's premise in the live show is to investigate whether it is true that psychopaths rule the world or have we just gone labelling-crazy? He will be joined by very special guests Mary Turner Thomson and Eleanor Longden, neither of whom appears in the book, and yet it would not exist without them.

"We’re being oblique because we don’t want to spoil the extraordinary twists and turns in their stories," says the show publicity. "If you don’t know who they are, don’t Google them. The less you know the better."

Nevertheless, Ronson says: "I've been experimenting with ways of performing on stage, like performing with a band, so earlier on this year I decided to do five completely different nights in a row at the Leicester Square Theatre in London; one with Louis Theroux and one with Russell Brand, among them, and the one that went best was Psychopath Night with Mary and Eleanor, who had been big inspirations for me. Mary had inspired the book and Eleanor's story made me want to look at issues of mental health.

"Mary and Eleanor are very different people with very different stories but they complement each other so well, their narratives work well together, and then we come out in the second half to take questions from the audience.

"I've been telling people's stories for 30 years and I think Mary and Eleanor's stories are two of the most interesting I've ever told. So it's a joy to be able to go on the road with their stories, and I really like being ambitious in ways of telling stories on stage, so it helps that Mary and Eleanor are so eloquent."

Should you be worried about taking the Psychopath Test at the heart of show, here is Ronson's tip. "If you are worried about doing it because you're worried that you could be a psychopath, then you're not one," he says.

Ronson had no worries about undergoing the test himself. "I'm the opposite of a psychopath because I never worried about it and so there was never a chance of it," he says.

Has Ronson ever worked with a psychopath? "It's a hard question to answer, but there is maybe one person who was that way inclined, but most of my editors have been smart, kind, though once in a while you get an editor who's ruthless," he says And remember this: "Most psychopaths don't murder people," concludes Ronson. "But then most psychopaths don't think they're psychopaths and believe it's a myth. They just see themselves as superior."

The Great Yorkshire Fringe presents Jon Ronson – Psychopath Night at Central Methodist Hall, Central Methodist Church, St Saviourgate, York, Friday, 7.30pm. Tickets: £16.50 on 01904 500600 or at greatyorkshirefringe.com

Did you know?

The Psychopath Test is to be made into a movie with Scarlett Johansson leading the cast. In 2009, Ronson's book The Men Who Stare At Goats was turned into a film that starred George Clooney; in 2014, Ronson wrote the screenplay for Michael Fassbender's film Frank.