Frank Cooke left school without any qualifications and one of his early jobs was cleaning the floors of the Stock Exchange in Manchester while he developed his career as a jazz clarinettist. Soon after becoming a believing Christian he was called up for Army service with the Royal Army Medical Corps and he served in Europe and India, being known throughout only for his clarinet and football skills.

By the age of 23, Frank had never read a book. The shock, therefore, of being accepted as a student by a college of Manchester University, was matched only by that of seeing his first ‘required reading’ book list. He persevered and taught himself to get stuck into books and began to develop a love of literature. Later on, at London University, Frank studied for a Bachelor of Divinity degree and continued to kept up to date with the advances of scholarship.

He became a Baptist Minister and held pastorates at Bacup in Lancashire, Hinckley Leicestershire, at Purley, and at Andover. For four years he was the Interim Pastor of a new church at Amesbury until it became sufficiently large enough to call its first full-time minister. And for fourteen years he was the Chaplain of Spurgeon’s College in London. He became a member of the Baptist Council and was elected President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain in 1983.

Frank was experienced not only as a writer, but also as a broadcaster, having been involved in writing and presenting for many radio and TV programmes. Some of Franks publications include: The Family of God, Jesus Rules OK?, Living Now, Word for Today, Through The Year with Frank Cooke, Christmas Bible Stories, Praise Away, Get Together, Sing Song Roundabout, Jesus (Scripture Union), Good News Starts Here, Living in the Covenant and Cooke’s Tour of The Bible.

He was presenter on the weekly ‘God slot’ show on London’s Capital Radio, and a regular contributor on BBC Radio 4, Transworld radio, and many other stations.

He ended his preaching ministry as Pastor of the village church in Winterslow and passed away on 23 February 2007.

Since then, the Trust – looking after his writing material and this website – have found both published and unpublished works by Frank which they are continuing to edit and offer as new material to this website.

Any comments, thoughts or tributes are welcome. Please send these to info@Bible4today.com.