The 44-year-old, who grew up in Mitchell Street in Burslem, has recently released his first book, entitled Echoes of Pain – A Life of Violence.
The autobiography, written from a child's perspective, focuses on his early life suffering from domestic violence at the hands of his dad, John, until leaving home at the age of 20.
Now a learning mentor at John Baskeyfield Primary School in Burslem, Stephen feels he has been lucky to go on to have a happy life.
He says his sisters, 42-year-old pharmacist Dawn and 39-year-old nursery worker Diane, have also gone on to live normal lives.
However, he says his younger brother, 37-year-old Michael, has been badly affected by his upbringing.
Stephen, who now lives in Smallthorne, said it had always been a passion of his to write and he was encouraged to self-publish when he started attending sessions at the City Voices writers' group at Hanley Library.
He said: "It's one of those things I've always wanted to do but I never really got around to it.
"I came from quite a bad background with a lot of domestic violence and this book is stories from my childhood. Some are quite sad but others are quite happy.
"My dad was bipolar but he was never diagnosed until he died four years ago. We were knocked about a bit as youngsters.
"My brother was quite badly affected by this, but the rest of us haven't done too badly."
Stephen originally released the book online as an e-book but after selling 200 copies he decided to have the book published in print.
Stephen, who left Brownhills High School in Tunstall when he was 16 before working for Wade Ceramics for 25 years, said his first publication was a real-life slant on the Arnold Bennett novels.
He said: "When people think of Burslem, they think of Arnold Bennett's version of Burslem, but the 1970s and 1980s Burslem wasn't like that. This is real life, and domestic abuse.
"I think the book will show that you can come through the pain and there are people who can help you.
"I wrote the book as a therapy hoping that writing it down might help me.
"It's only now that I've written the stories down that I realise what happened wasn't right. I never thought I was any different to anyone else."
His wife, Julie Harvey, said she was proud of her husband.
The 40-year-old said: "It shows great courage to do this because Stephen isn't very good at talking about things and he's come a long way to write it down. It's helped him to open up as well."
The book is available to buy at The Exchange at Cheapside, Hanley,
By James Truswell
james.truswell@thesentinel.co.uk
BUY IT HERE
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