In 1984, with his fiftieth birthday approaching, Walter McVitty felt it was time for a seachange in his life. He chose to walk away from the security of a long and successful career as a teacher, academic, writer and broadcaster in Melbourne to move to Sydney to try his luck in publishing, a field in which he had no practical experience or training. At the inspired and inspiring suggestion of his wife Lois, a school librarian, he set up Walter McVitty Books, a tiny publishing company.Walter and Lois were passionately dedicated to creating high-quality picture books and fiction for children, and this is what they did together for the next thirteen years, producing around sixty titles in all. Although they described Walter McVitty Books as a modest flea circus compared with the powerful multinational companies, their little enterprise achieved success and distinction, in Australia and overseas. By the time they chose to retire in 1998 Walter and Lois had unearthed a number of talented authors and illustrators
