Someone at a Distance Author:Dorothy Whipple Someone at a Distance has a deceptively simple plot about a deceived wife and a foolish husband. Avery North has been contentedly married to Ellen to twenty years, they have two children and live in the rural commuter belt outside London; when his mother advertises for a companion, the French girl who arrives set her sights on Avery and... more » callously threatens the happy marriage. Thoughout the book, Ellen and Avery are so realistically described that it is almost painful to read: this is a deeply involving and perceptive novel by the literary heir to Mrs. Gaskell.« less