In anticipation of the Lincolnshire Folk Tales Reimagined anthology, to be published with Five Leaves Publishing in early 2025, in which a plethora of exceptional Lincolnshire authors give the county’s folk tales a fresh spin, we’re giving them a chance to reflect on the project.

• Please introduce yourself and your connection to Lincolnshire.

Hi! I’m Aliya Whiteley, and I’ve been writing for about 30 years now. I live in West Sussex at the moment but when my first book was published (in 2002, I think) I was living close to Sleaford. I’d found a job as a relief library assistant in the local libraries, covering duties when staff were unavailable. I loved being part of the library service, helping people find the best read for them, and in quiet moments I could work on the next book, so that time shaped my future, really. Around that time I won a place on the Escalator scheme run by the National Centre for Writing, open to writers living in the east of England, and I’ve been writing ever since.

• How would you describe your writing style?

I write mainly speculative fiction (such as science fiction and horror) and I love creating stories that surprise the reader – the kind where you can’t predict what’s going to happen next. Apart from that, I’m not sure I have one style! I try hard to surprise myself, too, so I use a wide range of techniques depending on what I feel the story wants. I’ve written all kinds of things and am always up for a challenge.

• Could you talk a little about the folk tale you worked with for the anthology: why did you choose it and how did you adapt it?

I chose the Anwick Drake Stone. I knew I wanted a tale close to the area I had lived in, because that feeling of knowing the land often helps, particularly when writing about something that’s intrinsic to a time and place. I’d visited the stone(s) once and I’d lived in Ruskington, so it seemed like a great choice for me – also because I’ve long loved stories and films about standing stones, such as Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass IV. There’s something so evocative and mysterious about these stones. They can represent agelessness, but also a great fear of change. What if the stone moves? What lies beneath it?

I thought about writing a story set in the time when the stone was placed, but once I discovered more about it I knew I wanted to explore the 1920s, when the stone was moved. I tried it in third person, but after a few drafts I switched to first person and tried to capture the spirit of my narrator: a young man, just young enough to escape fighting in the Great War, who is about to make a huge mistake…

• If you could ask any author, living or dead, to adapt any piece of Lincolnshire folklore, as you have done with the Anwick Drake Stone, whose adaptation would you most like to read and why?

I love a good horror story, so I’ll say Edgar Allan Poe. I think he would have created something unforgettable. There’s no doubt in my mind that at some point he would have lifted that stone and found a black cat or a dead wife or a still beating heart within, and I wouldn’t have slept after reading it.

• Haslet is one of Lincolnshire’s delicacies, a kind of meatloaf with herbs, often made out of pork. Despite the similarity in names, it is far more obscure than its cousin, the Haggis. If the Haslet was a mythical creature, like the Wild Haggis, what kind of creature would it be?

I think it would be a small, rodent-like creature with needle teeth, living in those long flat fields, springing out of burrows to snuffle for worms. Much faster than a haggis, and more difficult to catch! Haslet really should be given its due as a delicacy. Due to living in such an exposed environment it has eyes dotted all around its furry head – which can be unnerving to observe  – and the ability to jump ten feet in the air, straight up. Keep a look out for one next time you’re out walking in the fields. Although there’s no doubt it’ll see you first.