Third in command of the Franklin Expedition, he was a Royal Naval hero at age 32. He had secrets though: the scandal of his birth, the source of his influence, and his plans for what to do after the famous expedition. The author strips away 200 years of misinformation to portray Fitzjames and his significance for Franklin's expedition. Battersby did his research thoroughly but in the end I did not find it very interesting. ( )

James Fitzjames is a mystery despite inherited assumptions about him. And the tale of third in command on the Franklin expedition by William Battersby explores that mystery with exquisite detail and research. This is a remarkable book, especially for a first time book writer. It is again the kind of history I like to read: steeped in detail and direct quoting from primary sources, but never to the extent of weakening the narrative, the storytelling that drives non-academic scholarship. The sense of the love and passion for careful, comprehensive historical research emanates from every chapter. You can just imagine the number of dead ends Battersby traveled and ghosts chased before uncovering this untold and surprising tale. While the sense from Beardsley and Lambert is of writers wanting to "fix" a history they considered flawed, Battersby comes across more as an explorer, out to find out what he can about this intriguing figure and being driven on by each new revelation. Fitzjames is remade, the image of a well-to-do privileged and favoured son of the navy inappropriately added to the expedition in a leading role, convincingly re-cast as a bastard child with talents, a hard ride up the ranks and who held many secrets in his closet, of his own as well as, quite importantly, those belonging to important others.

As a first book, it is naturally not without its flaws, but the number of "new finds" from Battersby is really quite remarkable. At times, it is almost like a detective novel, uncovering hidden mystery after hidden mystery - his parentage, his “sister” and “brother”, the Euphrates expedition, the Chinese wars, the mysteriously and frequently occurring “X” in his journals... I'll leave the "reveal" to my reader's own readings, but it is enough to make my recommendation of this text strong, if being the only biography of Fitzjames wasn't enough to put this book on your reading list.