“As much as I have been uncomfortable at times through the last two years, it is hard to be anything other than thankful that we did that TV show.”

So says Vic Goddard, describing life after the multi-award-winning TV series Educating Essex, a fly-on-the-wall documentary about life in his Essex comprehensive school. But this isn’t a book about a television series, it’s about being a head teacher fighting tooth and nail to give children the sort of education that will genuinely help them to make something of their lives.

This is a book about running a school, about the purpose of education, about becoming a leader, about family, about love. It’s a book about having the best job in the world.