"…a richly re-imagined fable which goes far beyond anything the historical record alone might suggest." Russell A. Potter, The Arctic Book Review North with Franklin: The Lost Journals of James Fitzjames was originally published in 1999. This supplementary hardcover volume contains an updated text, presented as a facsimile of the journal that we know Fitzjames wrote and including illustrations that he did draw, or might have drawn. This project has been a labour of love. I first met James Fitzjames in 1996 while researching Across Frozen Seas in the UK. Fitzjames was a minor character in that work, but his letters and the journal he sent back from Greenland stayed with me. As a writing exercise, I decided to write a few pages of the lost letter/journal that he promised to keep for Elizabeth Coningham after the expedition sailed from Greenland. I focussed on recreating Fitzjames’ voice and included sections and anecdotes from his existing letter to keep myself honest. Of course, there was always another day, another anecdote, another adventure—after three years of living a part of my life with my ghostly companion, I had the manuscript of a novel to pass round publishers. I saw it as a work of art that would give the reader a sense that they were actually holding and reading Fitzjames’ journal, rescued from somewhere in the high Arctic. I imagined a mock water-stained cover, a font mimicking handwriting and Fitzjames’ sketches peppered through the text (like most naval officers of his time, he was an accomplished artist). The idea was too ambitious and too expensive, so compromises were made and North with Franklin: The Lost Journals of James Fitzjames was published in 1999. However, I never completely let go of my original idea. In 2021, a quarter of a century and fifty published books after I first met Fitzjames, he returned to whisper in my ear, “You’ve had a successful career, you have lived long enough for the government to begin paying you money for merely existing and you cannot travel or go on book tours in the midst of a pandemic. Would this not be a good time to fulfill our dream?” I couldn't think of a good argument against him and so The Journal of James Fitzjames: Facsimile Edition with Illustrations was born. I have made alterations to the original text to accommodate the illustrations and take some account of the recent discoveries around Fitzjames' background and the wrecks of Erebu s and Terror in the cold waters off King William Island. Perhaps Fitzjames' actual journal lies wrapped in sailcloth and buried beneath a lonely pile of frost-shattered stones on a barren island off the Adelaide Peninsula, or perhaps it has been preserved by the icy Arctic water, patiently awaiting discovery in a drawer in the Great Cabin of HMS Terror or amidst the ice-damaged wreckage of HMS Erebus . Only time will tell. Until then, enjoy this journey with James Fitzjames. Praise for North with Franklin: The Lost Journals of James Fitzjames : "Wilson has managed to make his invented journal seem authentic and his account of the ill-fated adventurers plausible…one reads on, fascinated, to the bitter end." The Globe and Mail " Adventure fans and Franklin expedition junkies will appreciate this fictionalized account of the famous doomed trip…A suspenseful and enjoyable read. " Kathleen Hughes, Booklist