Herts in Pieces

When the world breaks, what do we become-the pieces, or the glue that holds them together?

Herts in Pieces is a powerful anthology of short stories and poetry from The Hertfordshire Writing Group, exploring ordinary lives pushed to extraordinary breaking points. From a near-future factory floor and a locked-down classroom to a haunted motorway lay-by and a pig who wants out of the food chain, these stories ask what happens when the systems we trust begin to fail - and what it really takes to stand up, speak out, or simply keep going.

A disassembly-line worker risks everything for a strange blinking module that may carry a message capable of changing the world - or ending it. A mathematician-turned-mother wages a daily battle with the "Little Ball" of depression that threatens to steal her career, her joy, and even her children. On an industrial farm, welfare chips falter and animals finally begin to speak, forcing shareholders to hear the suffering they've profited from for so long. In an American primary school, a teacher must choose between her own child waiting at home and the pupils cowering at her feet as an intruder stalks the halls. Elsewhere, a dancer sifts through the relics of a complicated marriage, a woman realises saying something and believing something are two different things, and a couple on the road in a changing world discover that survival may demand the cruellest choices of all.

Written with emotional honesty, dark wit, and a keen eye for the small details that make lives feel real, Herts in Pieces showcases six distinctive voices united by a single question: when everything is in pieces, what do you hold on to? Fans of thought-provoking, character-driven short fiction and poetry - spanning speculative, contemporary, and near-future drama - will find stories here that linger long after the final page.

Take a deep breath and turn the first page. These are the pieces of Herts, and of all of us, you won't soon forget.