A man who spent three days ‘living life as a goat’ in an effort to “take a break from being human” has written a new book about the life-changing experience.

Mr Thomas Thwaites, who has become more affectionately known as “goat man,” used a science grant to help develop prosthetic hooved limbs which would enable him to realise his dream of walking among goats.

“I went to a goat farm in the Alps and had some prosthetics made by a doctor at the University of Salford prosthetics clinic, including prosthetic hooves and prosthetic back legs,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Todayprogramme.

The 34-year-old explained that when he was a child, he always envied the lives of animals, who didn’t have to go to school.

After an afternoon of admiring his niece’s “happy, joyous” dog, these unusual thoughts came flooding back to him and he started thinking about how nice it would be “just to have a break” from the stress of human adulthood.

After penning a letter to the Wellcome Trust outlining his dream, Mr Thwaites was surprised to be offered a small arts grant towards his initially very tongue-in-cheek idea.

“It called my bluff, I suppose,” he said.

Nine months and £1,200 later, he was wearing prosthetic limbs and living on a grass-only diet in an Alpine field – an experience he describes as a “special kind of time.”

Mr Thwaites managed to maintain his alternative lifestyle for three full days before returning to normal human life.

He has since published a unique book entitled GoatMan: How I Took A Holiday From Being a Human.