THIS IS THE AMAZING TRUE STORY OF A BRITISH BIKING BULLDOG WHO HAD ONE DREAM: TO BE THE FASTEST MOTORCYCLIST ON EARTH.

The 1930s race for the world’s motorcycle land-speed record dazzled the world like the post-war space race: brave men hurtling deep into the unknown, fully aware they might never come back.

Eric Crudgington Fernihough was an eccentric, penniless Brit who contested the Isle of Man TT before setting his sights on going faster than anyone had ever gone before, aboard his homemade, supercharged Brough Superior.

His great rival was German roadracing champion Ernst Henne, the darling of BMW and honoured by Adolf Hitler, who wanted Germany to prove its technical and racial superiority by setting speed records.

Thus Henne’s efforts were supported by Hitler’s Nazi Motor Corps – his supercharged BMW streamliner proudly wearing swastikas on its tailfin.

The British and Germans traded the land-speed record time after time. And then along came dashing Italian Pierro Taruffi, who raced cars for Enzo Ferrari before dedicating himself to chasing the motorcycle record with a supercharged Gilera four, which wore Mussolini's fascist littorio symbol.

While Henne chased the record on Germany’s new autobahns and Taruffi raced down Italy’s autostradas, Fernihough went wherever he could: one man and his motorcycle against the might of fascist Europe. But nothing was going to stop him…

Hardback 232mm x 140mm, 142 pages