Tom W. McGrath, Author at Cherwell

The Smile’s “slightly crazed and uncertain landscape”

The Smile is not Radiohead; they have a new name, a new line-up, and appear to see themselves to be doing something artistically different

Plenmeller House

Under the covers, inside the walls,The wind shuffles in from the West,Rabbits potter in the grass,And the pheasants lay down to rest. This is the...

Hope Street: A Tale of Two Cathedrals

Nestled either end of Hope Street lie two of Britain’s great places of worship. These are the (Anglican) Cathedral Church of Christ in Liverpool,...

Review: “Kid A Mnesia” by Radiohead

Kid A and its sister album Amnesiac helped introduce electronic instruments to alternative rock, and were a risky sonic departure from Radiohead’s guitar-based and immensely successful OK Computer....

The Potter

"Did you ever meet the man, Who lived once in this place?"

Atonement

'I rue the lost hours and days: a finite life, this one'

The Lord is a Warrior

"Now, God’s people are soon to flee, Into the wilderness and coarser sands He takes them, they at last are free, But I, loyal servant, loving wife, What is God’s plan for me?"

Interned

My books lay open all these three short years,Had time at hand to sit and space to stretch,With pavement walks, contented times quite soft,In...

Nostalgia: it isn’t what it used to be

I remember a time when I took for granted that I could eat at restaurants, lay around in the park, and visit my family. Weeks...

Old Faith, New Tricks: Catholicism in the time of Lockdown

Catholic Masses with congregations are suspended, Holy Water has been removed from church entrances, the flock has fallen sick and been scattered. But the...

Review: ANIMA by Thom Yorke

A glance at Yorke's finest solo album to date

Review: Endgame – ‘Nothing is funnier than unhappiness’

A literary map of Oxford

Should we judge a book by its cover?

Blood is compulsory: The films of Martin McDonagh

Tom W. McGrath