In my hand was the secret of Finland’s educational miracle, one of the key reasons it tops international rankings. A textbook. Finnish children of all ages in all subjects are taught from state publications. These aren’t bibles, but baselines. What needs to be achieved is settled, long agreed, leaving both teachers and pupils focused yet relaxed.

This book, however, filled me with gloom. British schools are full of stressed teachers photocopying sheets, trying to keep pace with an ever-changing curriculum, buffeted by every political wind. A national textbook would be out of date before the ink was dry. Just deciding the history content would cause civil war. Indeed our educational establishment is split over whether such books should even exist. Old-fashioned and regressive, cries one