MAGICAL tales of a mammoth made from straw will carry on the legacy of the real thing, which stood proud in a Lincolnshire field.

The mammoth, built to resemble Manny from animated film Ice Age, was first created in a wheat field off the B1192 at the Lincolnshire hamlet of Hubbert's Bridge, near Boston.

Complete with tusks and hub-caps for eyes, Manny attracted much attention from passers-by. But he soon fell victim to a cruel arson attack.

Undeterred and spurred on by the number of people who loved the sight, farmer Paul Grant and his artist brother-in-law David Sharpe created a trio of mammoths – Manny 2, Martha and baby Twinkleberry.

From a bottle placed in the field near the sculpture, they raised £850 for the children's ward at Boston Pilgrim Hospital, through donations left by passers-by.

And the family of mammoths won a national competition run by Weetabix, which saw them featured on the back of the cereal boxes.

Now they have had to be taken down for harvest, but Linda Whatton, 62, mother-in-law to Mr Grant, has written a book about the mammoths for her four grandchildren who were upset at losing their giant straw friends.

Half the profits from the sale of the book, The Magic of Mammoth Hollow, will go to MacMillan Cancer Support.

Mrs Whatton said: "It's been amazing, really. It's just been an incredible time and we just can't put our finger on it, but we have just felt something about it all.

"We were walking away from the field for the last time before we took the mammoths down and my daughter Nikki said 'Why don't you write a book about it because the children were so upset when they had to go?'

"I just felt it was right and I was completely inspired by it."

The book charts the adventures of Mambo, with illustrations by Mr Sharpe, and follows Mambo on his journey from magically appearing in Boston, to helping some children raise money for a local charity.

Mrs Whatton's daughter, Nikki Grant, 38, said: "Everyone said it was a good sculpture, but that there was something else about it.

"We have had hundreds of people through here to come and look at it."

The mammoths will appear again in the field on September 11 and 12 to launch Mrs Whatton's book.

And a surprise sculpture will appear over the following weekend.

The book will be on sale from the Boston West Golf Centre and can be ordered at booksellers and on Amazon, priced at £3.50.