Peter Donaldson was a British

British people

The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 economist

Economist

An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...

, academic, author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

, and radio and television broadcaster

Presenter

A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...

.

Academic career

Born in Eccles, Lancashire, Donaldson's family moved to Gillingham, Kent

Gillingham, Kent

Gillingham is a town in the unitary authority of Medway in South East England. It is part of the ceremonial county of Kent. The town includes the settlements of Brompton, Hempstead, Rainham, Rainham Mark and Twydall....

, when he was only 18 months old. Following education at the local grammar school

Grammar school

A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...

 he gained a scholarship to read philosophy, politics and economics at Balliol College, Oxford

Balliol College, Oxford

Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....

. In 1957 he became a junior lecturer at the University of Leeds

University of Leeds

The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...

, before moving to the University of Leicester

University of Leicester

The University of Leicester is a research-led university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is a mile south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park and Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College....

 in 1960. In 1964, he took up a position at Osmania University

Osmania University

Osmania University , , since 1918, is a public university located in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. It was established and named after the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan. It is one of the oldest modern universities in India. It is the first Indian University to have Urdu and...

 in Hyderabad, India, where he stayed until 1967, except for a six month stint back in the United Kingdom, at Ruskin College, in 1965. On completing his term in Hyderabad he returned to Ruskin College full-time, and remained on staff there until his retirement in the early 1990s.

Publishing and broadcasting career

During the course of his early academic career, Donaldson became increasingly aware of the limited scope, poor standard, and inaccessibility of economics teaching at school and undergraduate level. In order to provide better teaching material, during his time at Leicester University he began to write what would, in 1965, be published as his first book: Guide to the British Economy. It was this work – which was to be republished in three further editions in 1967, 1971 and 1976 – that established his reputation as a populariser of economics. Soon after its publication, the BBC approached Donaldson, and with the corporation he devised and presented Managing the Economy on BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

 during the latter part of the 1960s.

Donaldson's time in India had stirred an interest in development economics

Development economics

Development Economics is a branch of economics which deals with economic aspects of the development process in low-income countries. Its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic growth and structural change but also on improving the potential for the mass of the population, for example,...

, and this was reflected in his follow-up program Affluance and Inequality which aired during the early 1970s, also on Radio 4. The series was accompanied by a book, Worlds Apart, which was based on the program and dealt with similar subject matter. A number of further educational and popular books appeared during the late 1970s and early 1980s, before Donaldson returned to broadcasting with Yorkshire Television

Yorkshire Television

Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...

-produced programs for ITV Schools

ITV Schools

ITV Schools was the educational television service set up in 1957 by the Independent Broadcasting Authority, broadcasting learning programmes for children ages 5 to 18 across ITV-affiliated stations...

 and the newly-launched Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

television station. His shows 10 x Economics and A Question of Economics were popular with both the general public and teachers, and were widely used in economics classrooms. Both were accompanied by books of the same name.