For five months in late 1920 and early 1921, Ion Idriess and George Tritton were stranded on Howick Island, a tiny inhospitable scrap of land off the coast of Cape York Peninsula in far North Queensland.

Idriess later became one of Australia's most popular and most published authors. His fifty-three books sold millions of copies and some of his books are still in print more that thirty years after his death. His first book, Madman's Island, told the story of his stranding on Howick Island with George Tritton. Idriess called George Charlie.

In Madman's Island Idriess claimed George (Charlie) went mad and tried to kill him but there are two sides to every story.

This is the truth about Charlie.