Bodyguard of Lies was Brown's first published book, following his career as a journalist in the United Kingdom and Australia.[1] The work narrates Allied deception strategy on the Western Front for the years of 1943 and 1944. It particularly focuses on Operation Bodyguard; both the operation and the book's title were inspired by one of Winston Churchill's wartime epigrams; "In war-time, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."[2]