On the eve of the centenary of Gallipoli, Ross Coulthart tells the real story of the iconic Australian war correspondent. CEW 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 to the truth, Bean often faced death besides 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 fresh new biography Ross Coulthart explores the man behind the legend.