Tom Gray

Have you ever looked at old family photos or documents and wondered what it was really like back then? Tom Gray's second novel takes the reader on that journey through time - back to see the First World War and life in Sheffield under the reign of King George V.Matt Farrell has a fascination with history and when his dad pulls out some old letters and photos from the loft a mystery unfolds. Matt meets an old comrade of his Grandad when his school puts on a play for the local old folk's home. When he visits the battlefields with his older cousin, his experience and understanding of what happened to the Sheffield Pal's Battalion turns out to be more vivid than he could have ever have imagined as he is pulled back in time to see it for himself. What will he find, and what has his autistic sister got to do with it?

18-year-old Adam Hicks has been working at his Uncle Tony's cafe in London since he left school at 16. Back in Sheffield for a re-union he meets up with old friend Lauren after her first term at Uni - also in London. Things hot up when his uncle introduces him one of his other "employees" Helia and she surreptitiously slips him a note. All is not as it seems and Adam soon finds himself in trouble, and lands Lauren in it too. Tom Gray turns a stone on the dark side of modern life and gives us a few laughs along the way. How will it turn out for Adam and Lauren?

John Duffey's Bluegrass Life: Featuring The Country Gentlemen, Seldom Scene and Washington, D.C. with a Foreword by Tom Gray is the definitive biography of one of bluegrass music's most important artists of the genre. Through his work as a founding member of these two pioneering bands, John Duffey urbanized bluegrass and introduced it to a broad new audience. John's quotes from a four-hour, never-before-published 1984 interview are italicized throughout and provide the book's foundation. The book begins with a profile of his father, John Humbird Duffey Sr, Metropolitan Opera star and chronicles Duffey's earliest exposure to music, listening to opera on the radio with his dad. Childhood friends Bill Blackburn, Bill Emerson, and Sterling Ellsworth serve up memories of Duffey from the 2nd grade through high school. Accounts of Duffey's early musical career provide an overview of John's first bands, leading up to how The Country Gentlemen were formed following a horrific car accident. The Country Gentlemen's Bill Emerson, Charlie Waller, Eddie Adcock, and Tom Gray are profiled and interviewed. For the first time, John's biological daughter, Ginger "Sam" Allred, speaks candidly about her relationship with both Duffey, and her father, Pete Kuykendall. Duffey discusses why he quit The Country Gentlemen, setting up the complete story of The Seldom Scene, as told by Duffey, John Starling, Ben Eldridge, Dave Auldridge, Mike Auldridge, Phil Rosenthal, and Tom Gray. More than 50 rare or never-before-seen photographs create a fascinating portrait of the complex, iconoclastic entertainer. Gary Oelze, the owner of the Birchmere music club where the Scene became stars, share his memories of John. Sam Bush, Jonathan Edwards, Pete Kennedy, Martha Adcock, Akira Otsuka, Dick Cerri, Emmylou Harris, Jimmy Gaudreau, Bryan Bowers, Peter "Dr. Banjo" Wernick, Tom Travis, Cliff Waldron, and others are among the many voices that contribute informative and compelling interviews. The book's narrative is supplemented with a 43-page Discography that provides track listings, recording dates, producers, composers, and musicians for every time Duffey entered a recording studio. The book includes a Duffey genealogy and index.

John Duffey's Bluegrass Life: Featuring The Country Gentlemen, Seldom Scene and Washington, D.C. with a Foreword by Tom Gray is the definitive biography of one of bluegrass music's most important artists of the genre. Through his work as a founding member of these two pioneering bands, John Duffey urbanized bluegrass and introduced it to a broad new audience. John's quotes from a four-hour, never-before-published 1984 interview are italicized throughout and provide the book's foundation. The book begins with a profile of his father, John Humbird Duffey Sr, Metropolitan Opera star and chronicles Duffey's earliest exposure to music, listening to opera on the radio with his dad. Childhood friends Bill Blackburn, Bill Emerson, and Sterling Ellsworth serve up memories of Duffey from the 2nd grade through high school. Accounts of Duffey's early musical career provide an overview of John's first bands, leading up to how The Country Gentlemen were formed following a horrific car accident. The Country Gentlemen's Bill Emerson, Charlie Waller, Eddie Adcock, and Tom Gray are profiled and interviewed. For the first time, John's biological daughter, Ginger "Sam" Allred, speaks candidly about her relationship with both Duffey, and her father, Pete Kuykendall. Duffey discusses why he quit The Country Gentlemen, setting up the complete story of The Seldom Scene, as told by Duffey, John Starling, Ben Eldridge, Dave Auldridge, Mike Auldridge, Phil Rosenthal, and Tom Gray. More than 50 rare or never-before-seen photographs create a fascinating portrait of the complex, iconoclastic entertainer. Gary Oelze, the owner of the Birchmere music club where the Scene became stars, share his memories of John. Sam Bush, Jonathan Edwards, Pete Kennedy, Martha Adcock, Akira Otsuka, Dick Cerri, Emmylou Harris, Jimmy Gaudreau, Bryan Bowers, Peter "Dr. Banjo" Wernick, Tom Travis, Cliff Waldron, and others are among the many voices that contribute informative and compelling interviews. The book's narrative is supplemented with a 43-page Discography that provides track listings, recording dates, producers, composers, and musicians for every time Duffey entered a recording studio. The book includes a Duffey genealogy and index.

In 1976 seventeen year old Tom Gray dreamt of pedaling coast to coast from New York City to San Francisco, a self-supported adventure into the unknown. Then responsibilities came; college, a family, a house, the burning in his gut to advance in his career. The romantic notion of seeing America from the seat of a bicycle, a dream that once drove a young boy, faded quietly into his adult past. Three decades later at forty-four he unknowingly walked into his office for the last time, a victim of corporate resizing. Shocked and questioning his self-worth, his termination put in motion events that would change him in ways he never expected. Not knowing it at the time, his wife saved him by rekindling the dream. It started with a call to CrossRoads Cycling Adventures and what followed was an amazing personal journey that tested both his physical and mental ability to survive nearly fifty days pedaling with other like-minded adventurers from Los Angeles to Boston. He embraced America at a slow pace; he engaged in lively conversations, and he discovered the "unique" in every town. Alone in the wide open he was free to let his mind drift and it was good for his soul. He struggled and he celebrated, but more importantly the boy in him awakened, and it was the boy who led him to the Atlantic. His story didn't end in Boston; it began there. His personal journey, his transformation to see the world through a different lens is why this cross country endeavor was so important. It wasn't about the bike; the bike was just a vehicle to finding himself.

How can an average lad from Sheffield go from living a normal life to attempting suicide twice, having 3 psychiatric hospital admissions and being sectioned under the mental health act? My story delves into my life, in parts it is shocking, in others it is enlightening but what I try to do is give a true account of my life living with Psychosis, Depression and Bi Polar. I hope I can try to break down the barriers of mental health and go some way in reducing stigma. It's hard to put into words the unimaginable darkness that can descend upon your life in such as short amount of time. It feels like the lights have been switched off in your world and the sun has set for the very last time. This decent into oblivion is beyond description, the fear that runs through your core is like something you have never felt before. You try to fight against this black hole that you are being dragged into but you cannot. You are buried deep in the void, a perpetual abyss far beyond human imagination. They say pain doesn't last forever but here it does. You know there is no way of being set free, the feeling of despair, loneliness and dread consumes every fibre of your being and distinguishes any fraction of hope left within you. Life becomes a waiting game, you know your purpose on this earth is no more and you are now an unwanted item that is waiting to be disposed of. Although you know the end is approaching you cannot find peace within yourself, your time on this world may be over but your fears of your next destination are so powerful that you cling on to this life with all you have. There is nothing left inside you except survival but you know you cannot survive forever and soon the day will come when you depart this life and move onto the next. This isn't just a bad day and despite popular belief you can't pull yourself together and simply snap out of it. Sometimes behind the biggest of smiles hides the deepest of sadness. Inside you are slowing dying and you simply feel like no one will ever understand or make things better. Contrary the feeling of immense power that consumes your body and mind is impossible to quantify. Everything that you ever dreamed of is now becoming a reality. You have no fear of anybody or anything, your time has come to change the world for the better. Welcome to the world of Bi-Polar. There is no choice with this illness or any other mental illness, you cannot opt out. Unfortunately you've been handed a life sentence with no chance of payroll.

The intense temperature fields caused by heat sources in welding frequently lead to distortions and residual stresses in the finished product. Welding distortion is a particular problem in fabricating thin plate structures such as ships. Based on pioneering research by the authors, Control of Welding Distortion in Thin-Plate Fabrication reviews distortion test results from trials and shows how outcomes can be modeled computationally. The book provides readers with an understanding of distortion influences and the means to develop distortion-reducing strategies. The book is structured as an integrated treatment. It opens by reviewing the development of computational welding mechanics approaches to distortion. Following chapters describe the industrial context of stiffened plate fabrication and further chapters provide overviews of distortion mechanics and the modeling approach. A chapter on full-scale welding trials is followed by three chapters that develop modeling strategies through thermal process and thermo-mechanical simulations, based on finite-element analysis. Simplified models are a particular feature of these chapters. A final sequence of chapters explores the simulation of welding distortion in butt welding of thin plates and fillet welding of stiffened plate structures, and shows how these models can be used to optimize design and fabrication methods to control distortion. Control of Welding Distortion in Thin-Plate Fabrication is a comprehensive resource for metal fabricators, engineering companies, welders and welding companies, and practicing engineers and academics with an interest in welding mechanics.