John Nettleship and the roots of Severus Snape
I wrote some of this earlier as a reblog to one of @feelabitfree posts, but I feel like more people could be interested in the subject, so I’m putting it in its own post for the general tag.
So this is about John Nettleship, the man who was one of JK Rowling’s inspirations to create the character of Severus Snape.
He was Head of Science at Wyedean School in Sedbury, Gloucestershire, where he taught Chemistry to JK, who began studying at the school in September 1976. Her mother, Anne, worked as a technician in the Science department from 1978. He was often known as “Stinger” by pupils due to his last name being “Nettleship”.
Yes, those are images of Mr. Nettleship in his science lab.
I learned that John, even though he was surprised and mortified at first, later on felt honored for his connection to Severus and wanted it to be remembered. This is all taken from this article, which provides detailed information about… a bit of everything (really), from people who knew him well. There is also this condensed version of it. (And I’d say: do visit the source, there’s a lot of interesting info on other stuff about Snape in there).
John at the time that he taught Rowling was in his thirties, like Snape in the books; whip-thin and (in the words of a former student) “ghostly white”, with swinging curtains of long and often rather greasy black hair, a burning gaze, an intense manner, irregular teeth and a rather large nose, and was often a bit scruffy and unkempt, even though he was always fastidiously clean.
This is John in 1976, 4 weeks after JK started at Wyedean.
He was a lifelong Labour Party activist and he later became a much-re-elected local councillor.
An innovative, inspirational teacher and an advocate of child-centred learning, John cared deeply about teaching and about his students, but when Rowling knew him his first marriage was failing and he was dazed with insomnia, which explains why Snape is so angry and excitable. He also had to compensate for looking about eighteen - and for the children’s mockery of his social clumsiness.
(…) As a child he suffered extreme physical abuse from youths running a Cub Scouts troop. At the school he taught at before Wyedean his colleagues marginalised and bullied him for his outspoken independence, and at both schools he endured Marauder-like verbal and physical attacks from certain students: but at both there were also students who admired and supported him.
(…) He remembered Rowling, who had spent her break-times in the office he shared with her mother, with fond admiration, and became an active fan who conducted Snape-tours while wearing an academic gown, and lectured on likely local inspirations for people and places in the Potterverse.
Photos of John when he was 39 and 41 years old, respectively (second one was cut by himself because he didn’t want the entire world seeing his nipples, but the writer of the article makes a point to stress that he had remarkably thin arms).
John did the Rowling family a great favour, for as Head of Science at Wyedean Comprehensive in Sedbury he hired Anne Rowling, a woman already partially disabled by multiple sclerosis and almost certain to get worse, at a time when no-one else would, and took her on as a Biology lab. assistant. He remembered Anne as a jolly, humorous woman with what she herself called “a dirty great laugh”. He was enormously fond of her and fought the school tooth and nail to get improved disability-access for her: in particular, to have a lavatory installed in the science block so she wouldn’t have to struggle back to the main building several times a day. All that is unambiguously good in Snape, his intelligence, wit and passion for his subject, his showmanship and fluency, his protectiveness of others, his courage, love, loyalty, honesty, dedication and sense of duty, his independence and his moral seriousness, is identifiably derived from John.
There is some discussion in the article about how he believed he probably had Asperger’s Syndrome and so some of his behaviour was actually due to missing social cues and not out of spite and rage as JK maybe interpreted (and wrote Snape’s background in order to explain).
In JK’s drawings of him, Snape often has a stubble and is shown wearing a Dracula-collared cloak which are never described as such in the books, but could be inspired by John and this high-collared hippyish jacket he used to wear.
Also, let me show the Snape fandom this thing his son made because it is adorable and you’ll feel proud:
Now I want to finish this long ass post with this: John also enjoyed singing! And if you’re interested in hearing the original strong baritone voice that inspired our favorite overgrown bat, you can do that right here (there’s also a video on the link).
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