Give or take the switching of one or two images, this is the cover of We Did Our Homework on the Bus. It consists of a montage of faces of staff and old boys spanning almost 60 years.

Given the book’s title, I had to have a bus on the front and decided on a 228 which was very much a St Mary’s bus.

I always wanted a montage effect for the cover and asked designer Gordon Galsworthy of Gem Graphics to come up with something suitable and he duly obliged.

The variation on the badge is something supplied by 1954 joiner and Delaware resident Bert Moniz who, I’m thrilled to say, is coming over for the launch of the book on 1 October at the school.

As well as all the faces on the front, the montage also contains a couple of successful sports teams including the 1971 ‘invincibles’ – the rugby team who went unbeaten at U13 level in season 1972/73 and the 1984 Kent sevens winning team including the late, great Kevin Hedderman.

The montage approach is something I employed on ‘66 on 66.’ This the book I wrote in 2016 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of England’s 1966 World Cup win and was certainly a broader inspiration for the St Mary’s book.

This involved tracing people around the world who had been at the 1966 World Cup Final, interviewing them and featuring their story. Kent-based photographer Stuart Thomas took what I believe are world class portrait photographs of them.

On the cover below you may be able to spot the likes of MP Kenneth Clarke, legendary commentators Barry Davies and Gerald Sinstadt, Manchester City star Mike Summerbee and famous football correspondents Brian Glanville and Ken Jones. Sadly, quite a few of those pictured below are no longer with us.