Stonyhurst 1884-1914 gives a full account of the Jesuit school Stonyhurst College during the years when it was at its height as the leading Catholic public school in England. The study is fully situated in the social history of the time, including the public school world itself. It describes school life, the academic standards of the time and the personalities who were responsible for them.

This was a time when Stonyhurst produced a colourful range of alumni, from an archduke, through a son of Oscar Wilde, five VCs and many famous Church figures, to the MI5 officer Frank Foley, who was responsible for saving 10,000 Jews from Nazi Germany.

The book substantiates the claim that 'Stonyhurst was a supremely effective institution', not merely keeping its position as the academic leader of the Catholic schools but holding to a distinctive religious system of education and providing the driving force for a flourishing Jesuit mission in England.