Sidharta Books & Print

Val Wake says he took up journalism because he was sick of secrets. His father was a foundation director with ASIO. Wake started his working life as a copy boy with the Sydney Daily Telegraph. At 20 he moved to London where he met and married Canadian-born Lillian Louise Lequereux and together they began their married life in Canada. After working on a Toronto weekly, Wake and his wife moved west where he became editor of a bi-weekly newspaper the Dawson Creek Star. It was in Dawson Creek where the Wakes’ first child was born.
The Wakes came to Australia in 1961 where Val Wake started the news service of WIN Four Wollongong and then became the ABC-TV newsreel producer in Sydney. The Wakes returned to Canada in 1966 where Val Wake worked for the CBC first in Ottawa and then Yellowknife. It was in Yellowknife where their second child was born.
After four years in the Canadian Arctic the Wakes settled in the English West Country where the family ran a smallholding. Wake then joined the Central Office of Information and moved to London where he became a senior government information officer.
Val and Lil Wake retired to Port Macquarie, NSW, in 1996. Since retiring he has published two books.