The World Was All Before Them is concerned with the seemingly ordinary lives of a couple in their mid-twenties, who have recently settled down in a small town: Philip is a doctor who has joined a local surgery, while Sue works at an art gallery in central London, an hour’s commute away.

Neurotic and obsessive, Philip carries with him the GP’s skill of perception and all its accompanying headaches. He is preoccupied by two of his patients in particular: a ten-year-old boy with ADHD, whose mother has sought alternative treatments for him; and a mysterious, strong-willed, elderly woman named Grace Hanworth, who