Above: John Hudson with Helen Collett on his right and Beria Bayizitlioglu Rodwell on his left
| Helen Collett I graduated from the University of Leeds. Being a southern girl, I was most flattered when everyone called me ‘luv’ only to discover it was not a personal expression of affection – and what a struggle I had to decipher the accent. I did research in Wales, lived in London and moved to Greece when I married. I lived between Athens, London, and Thessaloniki with lovely extended stays in Switzerland. I took another degree in interior design, sweated over learning the Greek language (which I never really mastered), and wrote for a hobby and miraculously a magazine was interested in publishing some of my short stories. Eventually we returned to live in the paradise called London with its glorious opera, ballet, theatre and swanky restaurants but then my husband dropped the bombshell that he wanted to live in the ‘country’. We came to Maidenhead and have lived here happily ever since. | Beria Bayizitlioglu Rodwell Beria Bayizitlioglu practised as an architect, interior designer, design co-ordinator and project manager in Turkey from 1980 to 2000. After achieving her PhD, she taught as an assistant professor until 2008 at the Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University and Beykent University. She moved to the UK in September 2008 to do research into the 'Psychological Quality of Houses’ at the School of Architecture, University of Kent. She also taught as an assistant professor at the same University until the end of 2009, when she moved to Edinburgh, and worked for Edinburgh University as well as Herriot Watt University. In 2020 she moved to Maidenhead to join her family who have lived in Maidenhead since 2018. Her main topic of interest is architectural history and design and her recent work in the UK has focused on the earthen buildings in Scotland. She retired in 2022. |