The World Water Speed Record: The Fast and the Forgotten by Roy Calley, £16.99

IN HIS fascinating account of world water record bids, Roy Calley looks at all the successful attempts from the first steamboats reaching speeds of up to 45 mph to the jet-powered records of the modern era which with speeds of more than 300 mph attained.

The Lake District figures prominently because it has a particular affinity with world water speed records thanks mainly to the Campbell family connection with the area.

The aquatic velocity links actually go back to pre-Campbell days when Sir Henry Segrave was officially named fastest man on water. He took his craft Miss England II to 98.76 mph on Windermere but never lived to bask in the glory of his achievement, for like Donald Campbell 37 years later, Sir Henry perished during a further run just after securing the record. Windermere was never to see another world-beating effort.

Ullswater had a brief brush with fame in 1955 when Donald Campbell achieved a record of 202.32 mph. But it was on Coniston Water that a lasting speed link would be forged - through Sir Malcolm Campbell in 1939 and his son on five occasions from 1959 to his death on the lake in1967.

ALLAN TUNNINGLEY