The Phoenix: St. Paul's Cathedral And The Men Who Made Modern London (Hardcover)

'With Hollis as our knowledgeable guide, we watch as a new, vigorous spirit pervades the City of London... It is this new, enthralling spirit, just as much as Wren's 'puzzle in stone', that is the true subject of Leo Hollis's fine book.

'The Phoenix is a truly inspiring story of human ingenuity and persistence in the face of disaster - and of how the future can be built out of the rubble of the past. On top of all that, it's hard to imagine a better introduction to the politics and culture of this glorious period in English history.' (Ross King )

'A wonderfully rich and informative book. To present deep scholarship so accessibly and with such fluency is a rare achievement.' (Tom Holland )

'This is a superlative book. Leo Hollis has that rare gift of making the complex, such as the nature of light and the complexity of national finance, comprehensible to the most lay of readers, whom he rewards - with no dumbing down - with fascinating details and characters.' (Liza Picard )

'In this fascinating, richly detailed account of how St Paul's rose from London's ashes after the Great Fire, Leo Hollis unravels what he calls this "puzzle in stone" to describe not just the new cathedral and its design and construction but also the complex politics, science and philosophy of the day and the ambitions of the extraordinary men who created the first truly modern city.' (Lucy Moore )

'A fascinating picture of the rebirth of London after the Fire and the men who made it happen, combining the history of ideas, architecture and the life of the city in a riveting narrative.' (Jenny Uglow )

'makes us see St Paul's as if for the first time, a remarkable achievement.' (Jonathan Glancey )

'Leo Hollis has set himself a daunting task in giving us the biographies of five men, recounting the history of England...He has brought it off triumphantly. The entire work is written in lively modern English without a trace of scholastic starch as Hollis successfully juggles the lives of the men while riding the uneasy monocycle of 17th-century politics and religious debate to give us a thoroughly engrossing adventure story.' (SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY )

' a fascinating book' (Peter Lewis THE DAILY MAIL )

'the political obstacles... and the social detail of modern London on the make are consistently fascinating.' (RA ARTS MAGAZINE )

' In a vivid and engaging narrative, rich in detail, he describes the history of england from thr outbreak of the civil war to the birth of the empire, describing cultural and intellectual change as well as political and constitutional events.' (BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE )

'Hollis weaves together the stories of Wren and four contemporaries who each had a strong influence on the rebirth of London in the decades after the Great Fire of 1666 . . . a skilful and enjoyable mix of biography and history.' (HISTORY TODAY )

'an ingenious and fluent overview of extraordinary men at an extraordinary moment, with St Paul's standing as its symbolic heart' (Michael Prodger, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )

'Hollis's book is an enjoyable read' (Lisa Jardine, GUARDIAN )

'Hollis weaves a lively tale of modern London's birth, beginning with a riveting street-by-street account of the fire as it spread from Thomas Farriner's bakery in Pudding Lane' (SUNDAY TIMES )

'What makes this book so fascinating, though, is not just the rich detail, but also its explanations of the emergence of the new thinking that so profoundly shaped the spirit of the age.' (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )

'His book is a tour de force of biography, history, politics, philosophy and experimental science.' (ECONOMIST )

'Hollis is a historian with a novelist's eye for dramatic detail, and an infectious affection for both his subject and his five men...... The Phoenix is an extremely entertaining work of popular history' (CATHOLIC HERALD )

'With Hollis as our knowledgeable guide, we watch as a new, vigorous spirit pervades the City of London... It is this new, enthralling spirit, just as much as Wren's 'puzzle in stone', that is the true subject of Leo Hollis's fine book. (MAIL ON SUNDAY )