Ian Laval began his
career as a journalist
on a local newspaper 
in the north of England, joining Reuters and becoming correspondent in Pakistan in 1966. As Reuters' Lagos correspondent from
1967 to 1969 he covered the Nigerian civil  (Biafra) war. Back in his native
Cumbria in northern England he was a radio journalist for BBC local radio for several years
from 1970. He has a degree in Chinese from the School of Oriental 
and African Studies, London University.

In 1970 Ian Laval started
a furniture-making workshop and 
timber business at Meadowbank Farm, Curthwaite, Cumbria, northwest England restoring the ancient thatched, clay/cruck house there.

He sold the house in 1999 to go to the Pacific Northwest to begin long-distance sailing.