Written by one of the most stimulating personalities in high speed boat design, this book is part autobiography, partly an intriguing account of the author's design experience, and finally a section dealing with the theoretical and practical considerations underlying the design of fast craft, leading to imaginative thinking about speed and the future. Forming an appendix is a most important and highly technical paper on pròpellers by Peter Du Cane, himself one of the world 's leading high speed designers throughout the last 35 years, and Klaus Suhrbier, senior hydrodynamicist of Vosper Thornycroft. The book is generously illustrated, including a large number of Renato Levi 's design drawings which have never been published before, and also many photographs. It is fortunate that a man gifted with brilliant design talent, who also has such wide experience of constructional and practical high speed problems, should be able to write with clarity and enthusiasm; his book also shows the author as a human being who combines charm with élan.