Daniel Gray

What if every day was like Sunday Closed shops and roast dinners Bulky newspapers and the hum of lawnmowers Strolls to nowhere in particular and visiting snoozing grandparents Television theme tunes cueing bath time and a sudden dread of the looming week ahead Through an assortment of rituals and activities Sundays came to be the unique day in our week whether tedious pleasant or somewhere in between But how did they change over time Has anything interesting ever happened on a Sunday Have we forgotten how to do Sunday And in our rushed modern lives should we now try to recapture that distinctive unhurried Sunday feel Offering answers to those questions and more through a mix of travelogue and social history A Month of Sundays entertainingly charts the story of what author Daniel Gray argues is the People s Day Told through Sundays whiled away in places from the Hebrides to Hyde Park via Sunderland Scarborough Liverpool and beyond Gray s latest book is a charming journey in time and place A Month of Sundays offers nostalgia people s history and affectionate absorbing writing a book drenched in the scent of gravy and summoning the faint sound of church bells

Add Another Dimension to Your Portfolio-- And Move to the Top of Your Craft Professional artists who strive to bring a new look to their illustrations are using Alias'' premier 3D software in tandem with Adobe''s prominent digital imaging program to create cutting-edge graphics. Now, with Maya 6, this remarkable combo is even better integrated than before. "Creating Striking Graphics with Maya and Photoshop-- "brought to you from Maya Press, a publishing partnership between Sybex and Alias-- is a dazzling introduction to the vibrant world of 3D and Maya. Graphics wiz Daniel Gray, with help from an elite group of pros, will inspire you to incorporate 3D into your graphics and think more artistically when approaching your creations. And if you''re already familiar with Maya, you''ll learn how Maya 6 makes it even easier to work between both applications. First you''ll get the essential Photoshop user''s introduction to Maya and learn how to make the leap from 2D to 3D. Then, you''ll discover how high-profile artists use Maya and Photoshop together in real-world scenarios where 2D and 3D collide in a burst of creativity. Through a series of interviews that address a variety of 3D applications, you''ll discover how: Maya Master Meats Meier depicts Mother Nature with otherworldly success Michael Elins combines photography and classical painting with the 3D world Damon Riesberg cranks out a daily comic strip by posing and rendering his cast of characters guru studios crafts beautiful 3D cartoons with a cool retro feel for TELETOON Meteor Studios brings ultra-realistic prehistoric creatures to life for the Discovery Channel''s Dinosaur Planet IBM painstakingly re-creates ancientartifacts, such as the Sphinx, for the Egyptian Museum in Cairo Meshwerks digitizes automobiles for use in movies, advertising, and video games and creates the ultra-cool chopped and channeled Honda EleMENTAL Woodie

Fatigued by bloated big-game football and bored of a samey big cities, Daniel Gray went in search of small town Scotland and its teams. At the time when the Scottish club game is drifting towards its lowest ebb once more, Stramash singularly falls to wring its hands and address the state of the game, preferring instead to focus on Bobby Manns waistline. Part travelogue, part history and part mistakenly spilling ketchup on the face of a small child, Stramash takes an uplifting look at the countrys nether regions. Using the excuse of a match to visit places from Dumfries to Dingwall, Gray surveys Scotlands towns and teams in their present state. Stramash accomplishes the feats of visiting Dumfries without mentioning Robert Burns, being positive about Cumbernauld and linking Elgin City to Lenin. It is ae fond look at Scotland as youve never seen it before. REVIEWS: There have been previous attempts by authors to explore the off-the-beaten paths of the Scottish football landscape, but Daniel Grays volume is in another league - THE SCOTSMAN Truly splendid - ARTHUR MONTFORD An excellent book about the countrys smaller teams - [Stramash] captures the vague romance that still clings to these smaller Scottish clubs. It will make a must-read for every non-Old Firm football fan - and for many Rangers and Celtic supporters too - DAILY Record As he takes in a match at each stopping-off point, Gray presents little portraits of small Scottish towns, relating histories of declining industry, radical politics and the connection between a team and its community. Its a brilliant way to rediscover Scotland - THE HERALD A great read, because Gray doesnt write about just football, he uses football as an excuse to explore the histories of small towns in Scotland - THE SKINNY Why do the Gers and Hoops have retail outlets in the capital? Why do buses depart for Glasgow on a Saturday morning from every corner of Scotland? Grays book is a splendid attempt to answer these questions, and more besides - The result is sociology at its best, which is to say eminently readable - Stramash may turn out to be a memoir of the way we were, and an epitaph - SUNDAY HERALD I defy anyone to read Stramash and not fall in love with Scottish footballs blessed eccentricities all over again - Funny enough to bring on involuntary laugh out loud moments - THE SCOTTISH FOOTBALL BLOG

The Spanish civil war was a call to arms for 2,300 British volunteers, of which over 500 were from Scotland. The first book of its kind, Homage to Caledonia examines Scotlands role in the conflict, detailing exactly why Scottish involvement was so profound. The book moves chronologically through events and places, firstly surveying the landscape in contemporary Scotland before describing volunteers journeys to Spain, and then tracing their every involvement from arrival to homecoming (or not). There is also an account of the non-combative role, from fundraising for Spain and medical aid, to political manoeuvrings within the volatile Scottish left. Using a wealth of previously-unpublished letters sent back from the front as well as other archival items, Daniel Gray is able to tell little known stories of courage in conflict, and to call into question accepted versions of events such as the murder of Bob Smillie, or the heroism of The Scots Scarlet Pimpernel. Homage to Caledonia offers a very human take on events in Spain: for every tale of abject distress in a time of war, there is a tale of a Scottish volunteer urinating in his generals boots, knocking back a dram with Errol Flynn or appalling Spanish comrades with his pipe playing. For the first time, read the fascinating story of Caledonias role in this seminal conflict. REVIEWS: As seen on STV Documentary The Scots Who Fought Franco. Daniel Gray has done a marvellous job in bringing together the stories of Scots volunteers - in [this] many-voiced, multi-layered book SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY...moving and thought-provoking. THE HERALD A new and fascinating contribution SCOTTISH REVIEW OF BOOKS Book of the week - Gray deserves applause for shining a light on a lesser-known aspect of the nations character of which we should all be proud. PRESS &p; JOURNAL. BACK COVER: Thirty-five thousand people from across the world volunteered to join the armed resistance in a war on fascism. More people, proportionately, went from Scotland than any other country, and the entire nation was gripped by the conflict. What drove so many ordinary Scots to volunreer in a foreign war? Their stories are powerfully and honestly told, often in their own words: the ordinary men and women who made their way to Spain over the Pyrenees when the UK government banned anyone from going to support either side; the nuses and ambulance personnel who discovered for themselves the horrors of modern warfare; and the people back home who defied their poverty to give generously to the Spanish republican cause. Even in war there are light-hearted moments: a Scottish volunteer drunkenly urinating in his generals boots, enduring the dark comedy of learning to shoot with sticks amidst a scarcity of rifles, or enjoying the surreal experience of raising a dram with Errol Flynn. They went from all over the country: Glasgow, Edinburgh. Aberdeen, Dundee, Fife and the Highlands, and they fought to save Scotland, and the world, from the growing threat of fascism.

A Scotsman and an Englishman, a camera and a notebook...McCredies lens and Grays words search out everyday Scotland - a Scotland of flaking pub signs and sneaky fags outside the bingo, Italian cafes and proper fitba grounds. A nation of beautiful, haggard normality.

Un homenaje al ritual de la lectura a traves de 50 pequenos placeres que todos compartimos. Empezar un nuevo libro, visitar otras casas y cotillear entre las estanterias, recordar una lectura de la infancia, el olor de los libros, dedicar una tarde a organizar la biblioteca, leer en la cama, esperar con impaciencia el siguiente de la trilogia... Existen innumerables pequenosy grandesplaceres en el ritual de la lectura y todo lo que lo rodea. Pues aunque quizas cada vez nos parezca mas dificil encontrar ese momento para nosotroscada vez estamos mas distraidos y conectados, mas saturados de informacion y acelerados, sabemos lo mucho que obtenemos al parar y (re)encontrarnos con un buen libro, el pequeno paraiso que supone en nuestro dia a dia. Porque leer es mucho mas que un pasatiempo. No hay nada mejor que descubrir en el tren a alguien leyendo tu libro preferido, o encontrar un objeto olvidado entre las paginas de esa vieja novela, o leer esa dedicatoria escrita solo para ti. Esta obra es una carta de amor dirigida a los libros y a las li- brerias, a los amantes de los libros, a las muchas y a la vez universales formas de leer y a todas las delicias que solo los buenos lectores conocen. 50 momentos de felicidad relacio- nados con la lectura para celebrar el placer que nos une...