Prior Park College was born in the nineteenth century of the dream of a Benedictine Bishop, Peter Augustine Baines. He believed that as the Catholic Church re-emerged from years of persecution it needed educated priests and an educated laity. It was a wildly ambitious scheme, embracing not just a school but a seminary and university as well, housed in the glorious Palladian Palace built by Ralph Allen overlooking Bath. But trust in divine providence became a substitute for sound finance and then a devastating fire swept through the building. Baines died and the enterprise was written off as a white elephant. Revival under the gentle, scholarly golf-loving Dr Edmond Williams was not sustained, but then the Irish Christian Brothers took charge. Under their control, Prior Park produced a stream of priests, bishops, archbishops and even a cardinal, as well as international rugby players, doctors, lawyers, businessmen, musicians and servants of the theatre. In the 1980s, the Brothers left Prior Park but it has risen again under lay leadership and has become a flourishing co-educational ecumenical community with firm Catholic roots. Father Peter Cornwell, former chaplain of Prior Park College, charts the many times the Phoenix has crashed to earth in flames only to rise again. He highlights the many characters who have left an indelible mark on the school, both masters and pupils. In doing so, he creates a frank but sympathetic portrait of a remarkable institution that has shaped the lives of thousands.