Miss July Lewisham is a spinster. This in itself is surprising because if you look properly you can see that she is both young and attractive. But she always manages to fade away when there are men around, as if she is shy. She wears glasses, but many people doubt that she really needs to. She always dresses in sober grey and wears her hair in a tight bun.

But she is Miss World to the children of St. Joseph Primary School! Whether it be the three well-behaved daughters of police officer William Enfield, the seven model bunch of mayor Geoffrey Redbridge and his wife Maggie, who runs the toyshop, or William Brent, the four year old spitfire of Annie Brent of " Annie's Boutique", whose man is stationed as a soldier in south Africa, she can get on with all the children. She gives lesson to all the classes together, from the youngest to the eldest, and always manages to give even the worst accident-prone a basis in language and maths.

She receives a lot of help in this from Lucy Barnet of the local bookshop. Who selects special books with lovely pictures from her own assortment and lovingly lends them to the school, thereby creating future customers for herself. July even lives in the school. A sober apartment has been furnished above the two classrooms, where she spends entire evenings on her own, preferably with a book. She has never been seen in the "St, George's Pub" of Bobby Taylor, although everyone in Bridbury see them as a couple. Perhaps it will happen one day, maybe this Christmas, when there is romance in the air and the warm wine served on the street thaws every body’s hearts. Perhaps even that of Miss July Lewisham.