In between working on other Horse + Bamboo projects I’m continuing the research and planning for Different Moons. Local historian John Simpson suggested I look for a a booklet published in 1981 called ‘A Way of Life: The Muslim Community in Hyndburn and Rossendale’, written by Jackie Smallridge.
Copies in Rawtenstall and Haslingden Libraries seem to have gone missing, but I finally tracked a copy down in Accrington Library – where John Simpson works. The booklet, typed and cheaply produced, turned out to be not so much a history as a source of information for outsiders about the local south Asian community, including the languages, traditions, etiquette and other customs. It inevitably contained a lot of information about Islam which I found valuable and sympathetic. All in all a useful guide, if now slightly out of date.
