Part biography, part investigation, this is a long overdue reassessment of the iconic Australian war correspondent.

Charles Bean's wartime reports and photographs mythologised the Australian soldier and helped spawn the notion that the Anzacs achieved something nation-defining on the shores of Gallipoli and the battlefields of western Europe. In his quest to get the truth, Bean often faced death beside the Diggers in the trenches of Gallipoli and the Western Front - and saw more combat than many. But did Bean tell Australia the whole story of what he knew? In this timely new biography, Ross Coulthart investigates the untold story behind Bean's jouralistic dilemma - his struggle to tell Australia the truth but also the pressure he felt to support the war and boost morale at home by suppressing what he'd seen.

The author of several bestselling books, Ross Coulthart is one of Australia's foremost investigative journalists. He's won a Logie and five Walkley journalism awards including the Gold Walkley. Ross has previously reported for Sunday Night, Four Corners, Sixty Minutes and The Sydney Morning Herald.