In the century since its founding in 1924, the Roman Catholic diocese of Lancaster has had seven bishops and one auxiliary bishop. In a series of biographical portraits, Paul Severn tells the story of each of the bishops, explores their background and their impact on the life of the diocese in a century of change in the Church and in the wider world.

Looking back on a century that has seen two world wars, profound changes in society, the "revolution" of the Second Vatican Council, increasing secularization and declining numbers of those attending church, and the beginnings of synodality, he reflects on the lives of the individual bishops and also on the role and responsibility of Roman Catholic bishops in the twenty-first century.