Bluebirds

In the 1930s Sir Malcolm Campbell broke all land and water speed records. In the 1950s and 1960s his son Donald did the same, before his death in his boat Bluebird on Coniston Water in 1967. When her father died, Gina took up the legacy, and here she presents a remarkable family portrait. Abandoned to a residential home after her parents divorced, Gina was later picked up by her father and accompanied him on his adventures. She heard the tales of her grandfather's similar exploits in the days when 180 mph was considered almost supersonic. She describes both men as endearing but rather irresponsible obsessives whose cars and boats were always called Bluebird. Gina, who in 1984 broke the women's world water speed record before nearly dying in a re-run of the accident that killed her father in a boat, also called her boat Bluebird.