"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, author of The Lunar Men "London Rising 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, author of Brunelleschi's Dome and The Judgment of Paris "A wonderfully rich and informative book. To present deep scholarship so accessibly and with such fluency is a rare achievement." -- Tom Holland, author of Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West "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, author of Liberty and Marharanis "Leo Hollis's book is as impressive a construction as St Paul's itself; his story, beautifully told, builds up the fabric of the intellectual revolution of the great minds encircling Wren's, culminating in the cultural renewal of the Eighteenth Century's greatest city and the peerless dome of the architect's cathedral itself; Hollis makes us see St Paul's as if for the first time, a remarkable achievement.

" -- Jonathan Glancey, author of The Story of Architecture "This is a superlative book. Leo Hollis has that rare gift of making the incomprehensible, such as the nature of light and the complexity of national finance, comprehensible to the most lay of readers" -- Liza Picard, author of Victorian London: The Tale of a City 1840-1870 "a tour de force of biography, history, politics, philosophy and experimental science.With huge skill, Mr Hollis weaves his characters through this thickly detailed scene. As London grew and trade prospered, they threw themselves into the great project, building, surveying, measuring, data-collecting--in a frenzy of empiricism." -- The Economist.