Peter Janos had recently turned eighteen when he heard rumours that a demonstration was going to take place that day in Budapest. He and his classmates in the sixth form of his prestigious school were instructed not to attend, which naturally made them all the more eager to do so. They could not have known that this ‘demonstration’ would turn into a major uprising which was to change forever the lives of those involved.

The date was October 23rd 1956.

“John Peter has the most extraordinary tale to tell. He was one of the most powerful critics of his time, and so it’s good to see his love of theatre shine through his writing; but what is more surprising is the nature of the battles he had to fight to achieve his preeminence.” Simon Russell Beale

How I Became An Englishman is John Peter’s astounding account of childhood in a Soviet State and his hair-raising escape from Hungary after the 1956 Uprising, to safety in England, and his gradual transformation into John Peter, Oxford graduate, author of Vladimir’s Carrot: Modern Drama and the Modern Imagination, and Chief Drama Critic of The Sunday Times.