A school history project turned into a 20-year labour of love for a speed fan.

Steve Holter, 42, has finally completed a book about Sir Donald Campbell, who died 35 years ago attempting to break the water speed record in his Bluebird speedboat.

Mr Holter first heard of Sir Donald when he saw the fatal accident on TV as a child.

He said: "When I was seven my dad built me a model racing car. I was playing with it in the kitchen when my dad called me in to watch the accident on the television.

"I remember thinking 'so what?' but six days later my dad died, so I think I have always connected the two things in my mind because it was the last thing my dad showed me."

Mr Holter, a TV director for Formula One, went to the former Hampden Park Secondary Modern School, now known as Eastbourne Technology College.

At 13, he decided to write Sir Donald's story as part of a school history project and set about writing to the Bluebird's engineers NorBros, based in Burgess Hill.

Ken and Lew Norris, who helped design the craft, invited him to meet the other engineers involved with the record attempt.

Mr Holter, of Kingston Road, Eastbourne, said: "I took a book on the Bluebird and Sir Donald with me and asked them to sign it. Most of them said they would but they told me the book I had read got facts wrong.

"The notes I made from the history project just grew as people kept telling me what really happened."

A meeting with Sir Donald's sister, Jean Wales, spurred Mr Holter on to get his notes into book form.

The book, Leap Into Legend, was not completed for another two decades but will soon hit the shops with a launch at Waterstones in Eastbourne on December 14, between 10am and 4pm