John Peter (critic)

John Anthony Peter (born 24 August 1938) is a Hungarian-born British theatre critic, who immigrated to Britain in 1956. He was chief drama critic of The Sunday Times from 1984 to 2003, and The Sunday Times contributing drama critic through to 2010. In 1990 he founded the Ian Charleson Awards, which he directs.

John Peter was born in Hungary in 1938, and attended various state schools in Hungary.

Peter fled from Budapest to England at the age of 18, during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He knew no English at the time, and lived in one of the refugee camps that the 30,000 Hungarian refugees to Britain were placed in. He worked at Forte's Milk Bar in London, and learned the English language and British customs.

Nine months after arriving in England, Peter entered Campion Hall, Oxford University, where he studied English Language and Literature. He worked as a part-time college servant and waiter in return for his fees and expenses, and after one year he was given a grant. After graduation, he did post-graduate work at Lincoln College, Oxford, receiving a Bachelor of Letters (B.Litt.) in Renaissance English Literature, and his earlier degree was raised to a Master of Arts.

In 1996, Peter was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from De Montfort University in Leicester.

Peter began his career while still a post-graduate student at Oxford writing a dissertation on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. An undergraduate friend was writing theatre reviews for The Times, and after his friend left the university Peter applied to The Times. He was interviewed and asked to submit a few short reviews of university productions.

He applied and was accepted as a reporter and editorial assistant for the Times Educational Supplement from 1964 to 1967. This was a three-year apprenticeship, during which he saw a lot of London theatre and became a freelance theatre critic, submitting reviews more and more frequently to The Times.

...
Wikipedia