Strike Fandom Finds Hallmarked Man Synopsis, Posts Before Official Release
February 28, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Searching Rowling Sources: A Day Spent Down Reader Rabbit Holes at St Trinian’s and in Tinworth, Cornwall
February 27, 2025 by 1 Comment
Life as a Potter Pundit is a curious thing. I woke up this morning determined to draft an introduction to a long overdue book project. I wound up, as you’ve probably guessed from the post title, well afield of that good intention on the hunt of two supposed sources for Rowling’s character names in the Hogwarts Saga.
It wasn’t a wasted effort, in fact, there was a reward at trail’s end I never would have expected, but it was still a day gone sideways.
It started with a note in e-owlery from a Serious Reader named ‘Mia.’ She believes that John Nettleship, Rowling’s chemistry teacher at Wyedean Comprehensive and the model for Severus Snape per comments the author made in October 2007 on the Open Book Tour, is also the model for Jonny Rokeby in the Strike-Ellacott novels. I asked her to make an argument for that remarkable claim and she obliged me with a compelling list of coincidences today. Having asked for that evidence, I felt obliged to check out her list and verify what I could. [You can read our back-and-forth on the comment thread here.]
Which required a deep dive into the life of John Nettleship. If you want to review my effort, here are the best links I found to material about the remarkable man’s life: his Wikipedia page, ‘This Is Gloucestershire’ Nettleship profile (2009), Southwest Wales Argus obituary (2011), and a Wales Online obituary (2011). The best resource I found for other resources was the WikiWand Nettleship page, which had in its references three treasures:
- “Rowling’s teacher who inspired Harry Potter’s Prof Snape dies at 71”. Western Mail. 17 March 2011.
- “Rowling’s ‘spell’ on science teacher”. BBC News. 28 December 2001.
- Jordan, Claire M. “A true original: John Nettleship and the roots of Severus Snape”. madasafish.com.
That last piece, the one by Claire Jordan, is of epic length for an online post and is all over the map. Nettleship had a variety of interests, from the history of south Wales and western England and a cappella singing in ancient churches (hear Snape sing!), to a lifetime of participation in Labour Party canvassing and campaigning — and, of course, after he learned that he was part of Rowling’s inspiration for the Potions Master Severus Snape, with all things Harry Potter.
Jordan’s piece makes a few remarkable claims that I had not heard before and which I hope Nick Jeffery, our man at the Welsh-English border, will be able to confirm or deny. Most notably, Nettleship claimed that it was known among the Wyedean Comprehensive faculty that young Rowling was writing whilst a student a schoolboy story using her teachers as models. He also told Jordan, one of “the Sisterhood” of Potter fans that corresponded with Nettleship frequently in the last five years of his life, that Rowling had signed up for a voluntary astronomy class with him; this was part of his argument in his own defense that he wasn’t the sadistic monster that Snape could be.
Most disturbing to me — and I have no idea how Nick Jeffery will be able to check up on for veracity — was the sheer brutality in the Comprehensive classrooms of that era. Nettleship, aka “Stinger,” if he is to be believed, was something of a punching bag and pin cushion for his students and his supposed “bullying” was little more than self-defense in an environment crowded with bi-pedal wild animals.
I hope to be reading Mr Jeffery’s take-aways from all that in the coming weeks, especially if he can get a copy of Nettleship’s Harry Potter’s Chepstow, a booklet he sold locally and in which he shared many of the local sources for Rowling’s Wizarding World.
Today, I want to share the search I made through two books that Claire Jordan’s mini-biography of Nettleship suggested I should read. She wrote:
I know that some fen feel that it is some sort of crime to suggest that there might have been real life inspirations for some people and events in the Potterverse, but you only have to compare Rowling’s own drawings with the real staff at Wyedean to see that it was so, and the books are full of in-jokes about real items of British politics and folklore and sly clever references to other authors – Tinworth, for example, is the name of a fictional Cornish village in the murder-mystery Safer Than Love by Margery Allingham, which takes place in a boys’ boarding school, and Umbridge and Tonks are the names of two of the teachers at St Trinian’s. In any case this essay is about John, and it is a fact that John made a very active hobby out of spotting likely real-life inspirations for the books, lectured about it and wrote a book and many essays about it, and that at least three other members of the Wyedean staff shared his interest.
I was able to read Safer than Love online today (via the Web Archive) and then the online St Trinian book by Ronald Searle which wasn’t just a collection of his cartoons, The Terror of St. Trinian’s (also via the Web Archive), a story written by Timothy Shy, pen-name for D. B. Wyndham Lewis. Join me after the jump for my findings! [Read more…]
John Lithgow Cast as HBO+ Dumbledore
February 26, 2025 by 3 Comments
Photo credit: Corey Nickols (The Telegraph)
American actor John Lithgow has been cast as Albus Dumbledore in the HBO+/Bronte Studios adaptations of the Harry Potter novels. Despite rumors of other cast decisions being made, Lithgow is the first central character actor whose contract to play the part has been confirmed. Three notes about this news!
(1) Three Things to Read: The Screen Rant exclusive story that first broke the news, ‘John Lithgow Confirms Casting As Dumbledore In HBO’s Harry Potter: “This Is Going To Define The Last Chapter Of My Life”,’ Lithgow’s Wikipedia page which details his history as an actor on stage, screen, and television, as well as his personal life, and a Telegraph profile of Lithgow from 2014, ‘John Lithgow: “I just can’t say no”.’ From the Screen Rant article:
In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Liam Crowley today to promote his new project, The Rule of Jenny Penn, Lithgow now officially confirms that he has been cast as the Hogwarts Headmaster in HBO’s Harry Potter TV show. Though the actor, who is 79, doesn’t spill any details about the series, he does admit that the decision to accept was challenging because of the immense time commitment at this stage of his career. Check out Lithgow’s comment below:
Well, it came as a total surprise to me. I just got the phone call up at the Sundance Film Festival for yet another film, and it was not an easy decision because it’s going to define me for the last chapter of my life, I’m afraid. But I’m very excited. Some wonderful people are turning their attention back to Harry Potter. That’s why it’s been such a hard decision. I’ll be about 87 years old at the wrap party, but I’ve said yes.
With Lithgow having now broken the seal, so to speak, it’s possible that more casting announcements will follow in the weeks ahead. So far, it’s been reported that Paapa Essiedu has been eyed to play Severus Snape in the show, and confirmation on this could arrive in the near future. Who will play the main trio of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley has so far remained a mystery, but the show reportedly put out a wide casting call for the young characters, meaning the actors chosen may not be recognizable names. [Emphasis in original]
(2) Is Lithgow Equal to the Dumbledore Role?
- Well, he’s old enough in his eightieth year to pull it off certainly.
- He’s played the lead in King Lear which was a triumph so he has the acting chops.
- He may be a bit taller at 6’3″ than I’d have guessed as optimal for the Headmaster, but it sure beats his being too short.
- He is an American but has acted on the English stage since his Fullbright scholarship at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
- He’s straight or “heteronormative,” and has won acclaim for his portrayal of the transgender football player Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp (1982) and of a married same-sex attracted man in Love is Strange (2014).
Two Tony awards, two Emmy awards, and two Oscar nominations with comedy, tragedy, and nuanced drama throughout his Playbill entry — if resumes could talk, this one would shout, “Hire him already!”
(3) Why Did They Start with John ‘Albus’ Lithgow?
My guess about why the HBO+/Bronte Studios started the roll-out of actors and actresses confirmed to be playing parts in the bally-hooed production to adapt the Hogwarts Saga for television is because the usual suspects will have nothing to complain about. Fandom had been assured there would be no Woke ‘Black Hermione’ drama; casting would conform to the published texts. And then ‘Black Severus’ went viral, Paapa Esssiedu as the Potions Master, and even though it was (and remains) an unconfirmed rumor. Harry Potter fandom, still in its Transgender Twist and Cancellation Reflex Mode, threw a fit, for and against the choice, mostly against (see the comment threads at my posts The Casting Genius of ‘Black Severus:’ Paapa Essiedu Chosen as New Snape and ‘Black Severus’ versus ‘Black Hermione:’ Similarities and Differences in Casting).
Any publicity is good publicity, supposedly, but the target audience is both exhausted by controversy and exhausting on everybody in that orbit. Yes, I loved the rumor that Mark Rylance was going to be tapped as the new Dumbledore (Black Snape, White Dumbledore? HBO+ Reaches Out to Mark Rylance for Albus); I did, however, express skepticism about the possibility that a stage actor of his skills would surrender the last ten years of his working life to a teevee show. John Lithgow is not an actor with the near future projects and possibilities that Rylance has and he has taken the plunge. Three cheers.
And a huzzah that his being selected will be met with a yawn by Potter Purists and TRA Twitter Titans alike. The series is supposed to start shooting its Philosopher’s Stone adaptations this summer for a late 2026, early 2027 release. The less drama at the start of this thespian marathon, the more likely it is we’ll all make it to the finish line together and can meet future announcements with keen anticipation rather than dread.
Reddit Meet-Up with ‘Phoenix or Flame’ Writers on Tuesday, 25 Feb, 2:00 PM EST
February 25, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Talk to you at two Eastern this afternoon!
‘Phoenix or the Flame’ Publication Day!
February 24, 2025 by Leave a Comment
From the Amazon.com sales page for the book:
Before writing the fifth Harry Potter book, J.K. Rowling created a seven-page handwritten outline of her original vision for the plot, offering an unprecedented glimpse into her writing process. In these early notes, there are noticeable differences in the characters, terminology, and plot, culminating with a different ending, in which Sirius’s fate is not brought about by Bellatrix.
Three of the essays in this collection focus on the ramifications of specific changes, such as the outline’s original much darker tone, the lack of Bellatrix Lestrange, or the different designation for the Order of the Phoenix. Another takes a more holistic view, looking at the changes in the book’s characters. Two essays use the outline to highlight the development that must have happened both before and after it was written. The final essay looks at how outline could be interpreted had one never seen the published book.
Together the essays explore the manuscript in detail, offering a new perspective on Rowling’s creative process and deepening our understanding of the published book. This collection also includes detailed guidance to help fans interpret the outline themselves.
Essays by Louise M. Freeman, Alice Arganese, Irvin Khaytman, Asher Scheiner, Beatrice Groves, John Granger and Patricio Tarantino. Edited by A. Ibid.
It has debuted at #1 among New Releases at Amazon’s Scholarly and Academic Writing category — and at the incredible bargain price of $9.99; get your copy at the Publication Day price while it lasts!
Check out the Author’s Symposium released yesterday by TRL for much more on the book and its various chapters:
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