Flo Ward's short story The End of the World appears in our debut anthology, Broken Ground. She kindly agreed to take part in our author Q&A series, to fill us in on the background to her story, along with her approach to writing and reading in general.

Q & A with Flo Ward

Can you tell us anything about the inspiration behind your story The End of the World?

The idea came from thinking about how we process disaster in a hyper-connected, digitized world. At what point do you define a crisis? What does it feel like to live through the seconds/minutes/hours/days in between normality and disaster? I wanted to probe these questions, and the sun not setting felt like the perfect metaphor – something ultimately catastrophic but also so subtle that it could initially go unnoticed.

What attracts you to writing short stories in general?

I think short stories offer just a glimpse into a world or a character in a way that’s much harder with a novel. There’s a lot more room for unanswered questions, or indeed uncertainties. And I find the short form allows me to be more experimental too, incorporating speculative elements, which isn’t (yet) a feature of my longer writing.

When and where do you most enjoy writing?

In a beautifully lit, utterly hushed library. That would be my ideal, fantasy place, but that happens rarely. I like writing in the morning, too: before work, with a coffee.

Moving on to your own reading, what’s your ideal time and place to read?

In bed, on a cosy evening, when I’m wearing my pyjamas after having a bath. Sitting outside feeling the sun on the back of my neck with a glass of wine and nowhere to be. On the Tube, when the book is so engrossing that I’m totally tuned out of what is happening around me. I miss reading as a child, when I’d be so obsessed with the story that I’d stay up hours past my bedtime reading under the duvet. Maybe that would be my ideal time and place to read: aged twelve, secretly reading in the middle of the night.

Maybe that would be my ideal time and place to read: aged twelve, secretly reading in the middle of the night.

If you could give copies of one short story – classic or modern – to everybody in your own home town, which story would you choose, and why?

I think my answer to this question may be skewed by recency bias, but I adored every story in Julia Armfield’s Salt Slow, especially ‘The Great Awake’. I think she’s brilliant at evoking the uncanny, showing us a version of our world that’s just a little off.

Finally, do you have a favourite independent bookshop you think people should visit?

My local, Bàrd Books on Roman Road in London, is fantastic: a brilliant selection, run by people who are clearly very passionate about what they do, with a great bookish pub quiz to boot.