Bluebird and the Dead Lake

In 1964 in Australia’s remote outback, on the dazzling saltpan of Lake Eyre, Donald Campbell set out to drive hisBluebirdcar at over 400 miles an hour—faster than any man in history. Things went wrong from the start: unseasonable rains, a sodden lake bed in which every high-speed run slewed dangerously, money running short—even an Aboriginal curse. With death shimmering on the horizon, the lonely Campbell tried to hold his nerve until he broke the record. Campbell would eventually lose his life racing hisBluebirdboat on Coniston Water in England, with more than 30 years passing before his body was recovered in 2001, but this strangest—and greatest—of all his world-record attempts was witnessed by a young reporter. John Pearson’s book about Donald Campbell is an extraordinarily compelling portrait of a modern tragic hero, fighting a battle with the inhospitable elements and the outer limits of technology—and, above all, with himself.