Tameside man launches book in honour of wife

The book has been created after lengthy amounts of research and is a visual look into the life of his wife Janet Wild.

Robs’ wife Janet was a dedicated member of the Re-sisters cause, a group that was dedicated to promoting peace during the turbulent time of the 1980s. Robert was less involved in anti-war protesting than his wife, but he was present at some of the demonstrations in Tameside and Manchester and had accumulated a large collection of photos which had documented the protests and his wife extensively.

Janet unfortunately passed away in January 2022, which spurred Rob on to honour his wife by telling her story. The initial spark for turning his wifes legacy into a book came from many avenues, as Robert said. “Before Janet passed she said that her youngest grandson will not remember her – this was a catalyst for me to start my search. Another catalyst was when I rang Sharon Marland to tell her of Janets’ passing, and she told me she had a banner that had been used by the Re-sisters and she made a suggestion it could be good for the Peoples Museum in Manchester.”

This got the ball rolling for Robert and soon he was dedicating a lot of time to researching and talking to the people Janet knew best. “I got together some photos I had taken at various demonstrations,” Rob said,  “and took them down to the museum and the local studies library where I was doing research through the local reporter group of demonstrations in the 80s. Over the next 12 months I found a lot of information over the next 12 months. I finished my searching in April 2023.”

The research led Robert to be able to do a successful talk on his wife and the protest movements she and him were a part of, which garnered interest from other members of the Re-sisters and Tameside CND. This interest led Robert to start publishing the book, with the help of his friend Bob.

The book covers multiple events that both Rob and Janet went to together, as Rob told us. “the first event we went to together was a demonstration in Manchester the Saturday before Thatcher was elected for a second time. This was a big demonstration with the likes of E.P Thompson and Mike Harding there giving speeches.”

The events, spanning over multiple decades, are all available to see in Robs’ book through his photographs and articles he has found from the time. The book has been quite a costly thing to produce, as Rob told us “I have spent quite a lot in my search, buying and printing photographic paper, cos I have printed these and given them to friends and spoken to people who knew Janet.”

Despite the costs involved in publishing the book, Rob said “I am not reimbursing myself for that so all the money will go towards the Christie.”