White Bird Black Bird is a fictional account of the clash of cultures when the indigenous people of northern Canada come face to face with the demands of southern consumers and their need for oil and gas. The story follows the fortunes of a young reporter in a idealistic crusade to right wrongs and find a mission in life only to discover that the northern mysteries have no easy solutions. The story is based on fact and many of the issues it raises are still alive today. The author lived four years in the Canadian Arctic.
Val Wake started his writing life as a copy boy for the Sydney Daily Telegraph. He then left Australia in 1955 for London where he spent time as a film extra and a reviewer with the London theatrical magazine Plays and Players. In 1956 he married Lillian Louise Lequereux. They hitch hiked around Europe and then started their married life in Canada. First in Toronto where Val worked for the Weston Times and Guide and then in western Canada where Val was news editor for CJDC-TV Dawson Creek and then editor of the bi-weekly newspaper the Dawson Creek Star. After their first child, Michelle, was born they moved to Australia. In his home state of New South Wales, Val became the first news editor of WIN Four Wollongong and them moved to the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) in Sydney were he was the producer of the nightly newsreel. In 1966 the Wakes returned to Canada where Val worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) first in Ottawa and then in Yellowknife capital of the Northwest Territories. While in the Arctic Val visited some 70 Arctic settlements and many years later wrote his novel White Bird Black Bird about his experiences in northern Canada. In Yellowknife the Wake's second child, Claudine, was born. After Yellowknife the family moved to the English West Country where they worked a smallholding in the Somerset levels village of Westonzoyland. Val worked at the county newspaper, the Somerset County Gazette as a general reporter. He next became a government information officer with the Central Office of Information (COI). At COI Val moved from Bristol to Nottingham and finally London. In London Val headed up a film unit that supported the Foreign Office information effort. It was this experience that provided the background for his latest novel When the Lions are Drinking. Today Val and Lil live in Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia. Port Macquarie claims to have one of the world's best climate. In Port Macquarie Val Wake started writing and sailing. Since retiring from the British civil service in 1995 Val has produced four books. The first book was about his father who was a government spy. The second book was about the Canadian north, the third book was about his decision to live in Port Macquarie and the third book was about government information work. He says he has more books in the pipeline. You can find out more about Val on www.valwaketheauthor.com
