Imagining Robert: Scenes from the Life of Robert 'Reschid' Stanley 1828-1911

by Christina Longden

Robert Stanley was a respectable northern working-class Victorian man who converted to Islam. But his family managed to keep his Muslim identity a secret – for nearly a century.
Robert grew up in the cradle of Britain’s Industrial Revolution and was part of Ashton under Lyne’s Christian Israelite sect. Self-educated, this grocer and tea-trader made it his mission to protect mill workers' rights when they were bribed by factory owners for their votes. He rose to become one of Britain’s first working-class magistrates and mayors, witnessing first hand some of the most violent riots, radicalism and progressive reforms of the Victorian era.
Robert advised Parliament on the issue of introducing the secret ballot for the working classes and knew the Pankhursts. His desire for justice led him to challenge the British government over their unfair foreign policies towards non-Christians. In 1898, at the age of 69, he took the astonishing decision to convert to Islam, becoming close friend of famous convert – Abdullah Quilliam – Sheikh of Islam of the British Isles.
His family then covered up his life and achievements – for nearly a century.
But by a strange twist of fate, his own great x 3 grandson converted to Islam in 1990; knowing nothing about what his remarkable ancestor had done.

‘Imagining Robert’ uses creative fiction to paint a colourful and fascinating portrait of one of Britain’s unsung working-class heroes. Written by Robert’s great x 3 granddaughter, Christina Longden and based on her extensive research, this book will both inform and entertain its readers.

392 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 11, 2019

Reviews

[Walter Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read Imagining Robert as a sequel to His own man. I enjoyed them both greatly. Essentially these are local history books about former times in the cotton towns of what is now Tameside near Manchester. They would be absorbing to anyone, who is interested in social change during the industrial revolution. The author Christina Longdon writes passionately around a framework of empirically researched social history and takes the reader through a journey whose stages include, the rise of cottonopolis, migration of the working class, the conception of the communist manifesto, Chartism, social cohesion and social justice. The golden thread that runs through it is the life and times of her great grandfather. He lived at a time of cataclysmic change . She doesn’t explore this directly but nods to the deeply held pious convictions of the population that change had happened in such a revolutionary way through technology and socially that it heralded “the end of days” either literally or figuratively depending upon your class and your religion or your point of view. She writes with authority of the plan to establishment a new Jerusalem in Ashton under Lyne, under the leadership of the controversial self styled prophet John Wroe.

Imagining Robert is a work of historical fiction built around a skeleton of facts she and her family discovered whilst researching their family history. Her style of writing is for the “Everyman and woman” not just history geeks like me. She punctuates every chapter with a witty anecdote and I found myself laughing out loud at times. Something I so rarely have the opportunity to say about history books. She has a gift of describing non verbal communication in the narrative which says so much more than the character’s words. Being a local lass Her use of phrases so beloved of northern folk such as “mard” and “scriking” gave me a lm warm fuzzy feeling as I read it. Maybe in her next book she could explore the use of phonetics in the text to truly capture that northern grit that Is so redolent of the ancient folk who have dwelled in the foothills of the Pennines almost as long as the hills themselves . In a forward written by one of Ms Longden’s learned professors he compares history to a journey through time with its timeline stretching from the ancient through modern and recent events but projecting into the future . I d put it much more simply. These books are about where we’ve come from and where we are going as a community.

[Fatima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in a play script style depicting Robert Reschid Stanley's life, which may appeal to some, and may not to others.

Look forward to reading about Robert Reschid in a different style in Christina's companion book, 'His own man'.

[Safwan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story written in a dialogue manner.