Peter grew up in Hungary where he attended an eminent boarding school, the Benedictine High School of Pannonhalma where he says he was inspired by excellent teachers. That was the place where he fell in love with literature and decided to continue his studies at university level for a degree in Hungarian Language and Literature. He studied for a BA in Theology at St Athanasius Theological Institute of Nyíregyháza to prepare as a teacher of Religious Studies for secondary schools, and then earned a Master’s Degree in Hungarian Language and Literature at University of Miskolc and became a Qualified Teacher of Hungarian for Secondary Schools. Soon after, he started his Doctoral Studies and is a PhD Candidate at University of Miskolc where he has focused on The Theoretical Models of 20th Century Hungarian Literature” Programme Researching Janos Pilinszky’s poetry. He also holds Qualified Teacher Status in the UK and he has done Bibliodrama training in Budapest – Bibliodrama as a Way of Intercultural Learning for Adults – Lifelong Learning Programme (Grundtvig Fund). This was part of a international initiative across five countries (Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Poland, Turkey) and took him to conferences and workshops in Budapest, Krakow, Reykjavik and Istanbul.
After his university studies, Peter became a teacher of Hungarian Language and Literature at Klotildligeti Ward Maria Gimnazium in Piliscsaba, Hungary. In more recent years he has been teaching at two IB World Schools in the greater London area, working both with younger primary school students in the PYP and older IB Diploma students studying IB Hungarian HL. For over 10 years he has also worked as a professional translator. For example, he did the Literary translation of one of Britain’s leading historical fiction authors, Norah Lofts’ How far to Bethlehem? , a novel that he translated from English into Hungarian, published by Szent Istvan Tarsulat, Budapest, 2008) He also is the author of of several literary essays on modern Hungarian literature published in prominent literary journals. (On the works of Janos Pilinszky, Laszlo Krasznahorkai, Zsuzsa Beney, Imre Kertesz, Peter Esterhazy.)
As an IB Educator, Peter also has experience supervising Extended Essays – including Existentialism in Miklos Meszoly’s prose.
We are so pleased to have such a passionate teacher of Hungarian literature on our team.