Stephen Tuffin is a Teacher at New College and has a passion for Flash fiction, as he realised with the publishing of his work in the 2017 flash fiction anthology Sleep is a Beautiful Colour. The success of his former student, Santino Prinzi, allowed him to realise he could be successful as well and prompted him to publish his flash fiction. His primary reason for choosing flash fiction over full novels or shorter, standalone books, is that they are only 100 to 500 words long, to him giving him the chance to fit his writing around a busy work schedule, and he relishes how with such short stories each word must count much more than in a large novel.
When asked about how he got the ideas for his writing, he told me that he took inspiration from parts of his life and exaggerated them, making them more interesting for the reader and more plausible for a story. He continued, going into more detail about his childhood and the various jobs he went through. First he started out as a butcher’s assistant until the butcher moved to America – added to this was the fact that when Stephen was young he thought he might have liked to be taken to America with the butcher so he could continue working for him. He went on after this to a menswear clothing shop, where he learned an important truth: that he would never have a lengthy career in menswear. “Career” is a word used loosely, as during this interview, he admitted that coming from a working class background, he had no career, only a job that earned money.
His 3rd job was working at a harbour café in Margate, which is still there today. His experience there led him to his 4th job, at a mental hospital where he met his wife, one of the other care assistants. He also based one of his stories off of this experience, ‘The Scenic Railway’. This story is about three very interesting individuals including Mrs Moate who also switches to Mrs Standish. She has multiple personality disorder and switches between multiple male and female personas throughout. Based on Stephens’s experiences.
From the mental aftercare hospital he moved onto his 5th job, where a surprising revelation overcame him – he was suddenly in a predominately male orientated job as opposed to the predominately female orientated job of nursing in the mental aftercare hospital. This led to his work being published – The Sun on the Dash. Based on the masculinity he experienced as a builder, it speaks of love for people for their personality and what makes them attractive is who they are not what they are. In it, there is unconditional love between one builder and another, that isn’t returned, and just when it seems he will come out and say that he loves him, the moment becomes awkward and he picks up the sun, goes to page 3 and shows his rejection. This story embraces the harsh reality of life, and how fairy tale stories are simply not realistic. He then told me about how he feels relationships have changed and they are no longer as loving as before – The Sun on the Dash demonstrated how he wishes things were different now.
After his work as a builder, where he was told he would never work again due to a workplace injury, Stephen’s wife aspired to get a qualification in nursing, after they had moved to Swindon. She went to College and got the qualifications required after the labour government at the time offered free tuition for those aspiring to join the healthcare system.
After she acquired the qualifications she needed, Stephen was inspired to also try to get the degree he needed to teach others. He found it amazing at the time, and still does, that somebody of his background was capable of what he has achieved. Getting a degree for teaching that he needed, Stephen discovered a passion for reading out his and other people’s works onstage. Although he struggled at first, he found that he was good at it, and it is now his favourite and most inspiring thing he has ever done.
Stephen’s successes are now more and more prevalent and he has continued teaching at New College. He expressed his views on Creative Writing and how it was a good thing that the course was discontinued, as it is hard to teach, and technique based, so many could not just write. His future works are unknown, but one thing that is sure is that he will continue to write flash fiction.
By Cameron Young
