It left me with a complete absence of faith; indeed it gave me a quotidian 20 minutes to contemplate why it was all a load of bunkum. It's far easier to reject something if you have a decent knowledge of what exactly you are rejecting. I sometimes suspect that most atheists wouldn't know their Ephesians from their elbows.

But like a brass rubbing of a Medieval knight, a faint impression of the liturgy has stayed with me. It was not only an introduction to the central underpinning of so much of western culture, but the most fabulous indoctrination into the cadences and rhythms of the King James Bible. And for this I am eternally grateful.

But most of all, daily chapel taught me how to be bored, so deeply bored. Forget the modern fad for teaching mindfulness at school – insist children sit unfidgeting on a pew with only Hymns Ancient & Modern for distraction every day. It is the best way to extend a child’s gnat-like attention span. I learnt how to find interest in the smallest speck of dust or mark on my school tie.