Bottesford author Ray pens second book of poems

The former newspaper reporter, lay pastor and bank director has published his second book poems ‘The Big Bang and Other Poems.’

Mr Smart said: “This book of poems is an attempt to counter the prevalent idea among a large section of the scientific community that we are all here on earth because a big explosion happened out of absolutely nothing.”

Ray’s poetry centres on his faith, having spent most of his working life lay pastoring baptist and evangelical churches. He has also preached in the US, Hong Kong and Peru.

He was due to preach in the Christian Church in Damascus in the late sixties, but the six day war between Israel and Arab nations stopped that.

However, his career has been as much about the written word, having started his working life at 16 as a journalist for the Coalville Times, where he mainly covered sport and other events.

This was interrupted by two years of national service in the RAF, then from a temporary job in a bank head office, filling inkwells and changing blotting paper, he rose to become the TSB’s area director for the East Midlands until his retirement in 1992.

Ray’s first book ‘Some Poems’ was written in 2014. It encompassed some of his childhood memories of growing up on a council estate in Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

‘The Big Bang and Other Poems’ is available from Amazon and most bookshops.