A fictionalised account of Captain James Cook's early life, The Secret Life of James Cook depicts in imaginative form Cook's early life and ambitions, his naval career in Canada and beyond and his marriage to Elizabeth and their family life. Drawing on his deep knowledge of the South Pacific and Australasia, novelist Graeme Lay recreates the peerless navigator's life up to, and including, his first circumnavigation of the world. In particular, Graeme imagines the relationship between James and his equally remarkable wife, Elizabeth, the woman he married when he was 34 and she 21, and by whom he had six children, all born while he was away at sea. The Secret Life of James Cook also depicts an often stormy relationship between Cook and the dashing and privileged naturalist, Joseph Banks, who accompanied Cook on his first world voyage.