Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car is a children's story written by Ian Fleming and illustrated by John Burningham. It was initially published in three volumes, the first of which was released on 22 October 1964 by Jonathan Cape, before being published as one book. The story concerns the exploits of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang—a car with hidden powers and abilities—and its owners, the Pott family.
Fleming, better known as the creator of James Bond, took his inspiration for the subject from a series of aero-engined racing cars called "Chitty Bang Bang", built by Louis Zborowski in the early 1920s. Fleming wrote the book while convalescing after having had a major heart attack; he had created the story as a bedtime story for his son, Caspar. Although Fleming wanted The Daily Mail cartoonist Trog—the pseudonym of Wally Fawkes—as the book's illustrator, the newspaper did not allow him to work on the project, so Burningham was commissioned. Fleming did not live to see Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang published; he died of a heart attack on 11 August 1964 and the book was published two months later.
Caractacus Pott, a former commander in the Royal Navy, invents sweets that can also be used as whistles, and sells the idea to Lord Skrumshus, the wealthy owner of a local confectionery factory. Pott uses the money to buy and renovate an old car, a "Paragon Panther"—the sole production of the Paragon motor-car company before it went bankrupt. It is a four-seat touring car with an enormous bonnet. After the restoration is complete, the car is named for the noises made by its starter motor and the characteristic two loud backfires it makes when it starts.
At first, Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang is just a big and powerful car, but as the book progresses it surprises the family by beginning to exhibit independent actions. This first happens while the family is caught in a traffic jam on their way to the beach for a picnic. The car suddenly instructs Commander Pott to pull a switch which causes Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang to sprout wings and take flight over the stopped cars on the road. Commander Pott flies them to Goodwin Sands in the English Channel where the family picnics, swims and sleeps. While the family naps, the tide comes in and threatens to drown them. Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang wakes them just in time with a hiss of steam. At the car's direction, Commander Pott pulls another switch, which causes it to transform into a hovercraft-like vehicle. They make for the French coast and land on a beach near Calais. Exploring along the beach, they find a cave boobytrapped with some devices intended to scare off intruders. At the back of the cave is a store of armaments and explosives. The family detonates the cache of explosives and flees the cave.
The gang of gun-runners who own the ammunition dump arrive and block the road in front of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. The gangsters threaten the family, but Commander Pott throws the switch, which transforms the car into an aeroplane. They take off, leaving the gangsters in helpless fury. The Potts stay overnight in a hotel in Calais. While the family sleeps, the gangsters break into the children's room and kidnap them and drive off towards Paris. Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang tracks the gangsters' route, wakes Commander and Mrs Pott, and they drive off in pursuit.
The gangsters are planning to rob a famous chocolate shop in Paris using the children as decoys. The Pott children overhear this and manage to warn the shop owner, Monsieur Bon-Bon. Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang arrives in time to prevent the gangsters from fleeing. The police arrive and the gangsters are taken away. As a reward, Madame Bon-Bon shares the secret recipe of her fudge with the Potts, and the two families become good friends. Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang flies the family away to parts unknown, and the book implies that the car has yet more secrets.
Background and writing history
By March 1961 Ian Fleming had written nine books at the rate of one a year: eight novels and a collection of short stories, all featuring the character James Bond.[lower-alpha 1] The most recent of these was Thunderball, a novel Fleming wrote in early 1960. It was based on the screenplay he wrote with the screenwriter Jack Whittingham and the writer and director, Kevin McClory.[2][3]Legal difficulties before publication led to a hearing at the High Court in London on 24 March 1961, putting great strain on Fleming.[4][5] Two weeks after the case, during the weekly Tuesday staff conference at his employers, The Sunday Times, Fleming suffered a major heart attack.[6]
The attack was severe enough to necessitate hospitalisation, after which Fleming convalesced at the Dudley Hotel in Hove.[6][7] While he was recuperating, one of his friends—probably Sir George Duff-Sutherland-Dunbar, according to Fleming's biographer Andrew Lycett—gave him a copy of Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin to read, and suggested Fleming write up the bedtime story he used to tell his son Caspar each evening.[6] Fleming disliked the book, but enjoyed the illustrations.[8] He had been forbidden access to a typewriter, in case the strain of writing a new Bond novel was too much for him, and he asked for a pen and paper and wrote the story by hand.[9] He attacked the project with gusto and wrote to his publisher, Michael Howard of Jonathan Cape, joking that "There is not a moment, even on the edge of the tomb, when I am not slaving for you".[10][8] Just over a month after his heart attack he sent Howard the drafts of the first two stories.[11] The working title for the book was The Magical Car, which may have been in place until about six months before it was published.[12] Fleming considered the idea of publishing the book under the pseudonym "Ian Lancaster" (his first two names), but Howard counselled against it and he agreed.[13]
Fleming did not live to see Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang published; he suffered a further heart attack on 11 August 1964 and died in the early morning of the following day—his son Caspar's twelfth birthday—in Canterbury, Kent.[14][7] The book was published two months after his death.[15]
As he wrote Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, Fleming used aspects of his life to flesh out the details, much as he did with many of his Bond stories.[16] Thus, in the book, one of the children was called Jemima, after the daughter of his previous employer, Hugo Pitman.[11] The advice Pott gave to his children—"Never say 'no' to adventure. Always say 'yes', otherwise you'll lead a very dull life"[17]—is an echo of Fleming's outlook.[11][18] Pott's naval rank was commander, which was also that held by Fleming during the Second World War; Fleming used the rank for James Bond and James Gunn, an unrealised television series he wrote in 1965.[19]
The car Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang was based on a composite of two vehicles: Fleming's own Standard Tourer, which he had driven in Switzerland in the late 1920s, and Chitty Bang Bang, a chain-driven customised Mercedes with an eight-foot-long (two-point-four-metre) bonnet and a twenty-three-litre, six-cylinder aero-engine from Maybach. The engine was of the type used on First World War Zeppelins.[11] Fleming had seen the car's owner, Louis Zborowski, race at the Brooklands race track.[11] The origin of the name "Chitty Bang Bang" is disputed, but may have been inspired by early aeronautical engineer Letitia Chitty. An obscene song from the First World War may also be connected to the name; this referred to the "chits", or passes, given to officers to visit the bordellos of Paris.[12] The bibliographer Jon Gilbert suggests that when Fleming was at Eton, there were two brothers called Chitty, the sons of one of the schoolmasters, the Reverend George Jameson Chitty, and it is possible that they are the origin of the name.[20] Fleming had a long-held passion for cars, owning several over his life and reading avidly on the subject.[21] The sound a car made was "almost as important as the appearance" to Fleming, according to Henry Chancellor, who has written for Ian Fleming Publications.[22]
When Fleming sent his publisher the manuscripts for the first two volumes of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang in May 1961, he suggested The Daily Mail cartoonist Trog—the pseudonym of Wally Fawkes—as the book's illustrator.[11][23] Fleming was an admirer of Trog's work and considered him a friend, describing him as "an extremely nice man and great fun".[24] Although Trog completed preliminary drawings for the project, The Daily Mail refused to allow him to complete the work as many of Fleming's works were serialised in its rival, the Daily Express.[11] While undertaking his preliminary drawings, Trog tried to make the fudge recipe included in the book and found it was not particularly good: the editors at Jonathan Cape spent a day making up batches from different recipes to find a better one to use.[23]
Cape then asked the illustrator Haro Hodson if he would like to work on the book. He produced some trial sketches, but Fleming rejected them as not being suitable.[25] Fleming asked his friend Amherst Villiers if he would be able to come up with a design for the car which was "really snazzy looking to excite the imagination of children about 7–10".[11] He explained that the publishers "have got one or two artists lined up for the figures, landscapes, etc, they can't find anybody with enough technical know-how and imagination to draw a suitable Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang".[26] Villiers was an engineer and engine designer who had provided Fleming with the technical details he used for Bond's cars in the novels; he also painted Fleming's portrait in 1962.[27] According to Fleming's biographer, Andrew Lycett, Villiers's sketch was of "a low green rakish car, which looked like an SSK Mercedes with a round Delauney Belleville radiator".[11]
Cape then commissioned John Burningham, who had recently won the 1963 Kate Greenaway Medal for his book Borka: The Adventures of a Goose with No Feathers.[28] Burningham followed Fleming's instructions carefully and, although Villiers's drawings were not used, Burningham's illustrations of the car "bear a striking resemblance to Amherst's coloured drawings", according to Paul Kenny, Villiers's biographer.[11][29]
Release and reception
Publication history
Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car was first published in the UK in three hard-backed volumes by Jonathan Cape, each costing 10s 6d.[30][lower-alpha 2] The first volume was launched on 22 October 1964, the second on 26 November 1964 and the third on 14 January 1965.[30] All three volumes contained 48 pages.[32] In July 1968 the three volumes were released in one single 123-page volume by Pan Books under the name Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Complete Adventures of the Magical Car. Later editions and paperback versions used only the shortened name Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang.[33] Since its initial publication the book has been re-issued in hardback and paperback editions and, as at 2024[update], has never been out of print.[7][34]
The book was published in the US in 1964 by Random House. Rather than publishing in three volumes, the stories were produced in one volume, which meant American readers were able to read the third part of the story before British readers.[35] In May 1965, Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang was third in The New York Times's list of best-selling books for children;[36] by November that year, it was second.[37]
Critical reception
Alexander Muir, in the Daily Mirror, considered that the first two volumes of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang would be excellent Christmas presents for younger readers,[38] although John Rowe Townsend, writing in The Guardian, suggested that a father, rather than the child, would be a better recipient of the present.[39] The unnamed reviewer for The Birmingham Post thought the book would be enjoyed by both the children and their parents.[40]
Both Oscar Turnill, writing for The Sunday Times, and Townsend described Fleming's writing as avuncular, although Townsend was being critical, saying that "we have the adult writer at play rather than the children's writer at work. The style is avuncular, the writing down too evident."[39] Turnill, however, praised the good-humoured nature of Fleming's storytelling.[41]The Birmingham Post commended Fleming's writing, stating he "proves himself already an accomplished, unpatronising story-teller for... the 5–12-year-olds".[40]
Turnill thought the writer "was right in judging the children's market ripe for the... cliff-hanger";[41] Muir also praised the "thrilling cliff-hanger" nature of the book.[38] The reviewer for The Times drew parallels with Fleming's other work, and noted that the book would be an excellent choice for younger readers before they started on a Bond novel.[42] The author Richard Usborne, writing for The Daily Telegraph, also reviewed Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang in the light of the James Bond novels, and wrote:
These CCBB stories are highly professional in the field of children's books. The odd items of information, the super wicked villains, the hairsbreadth escapes, the happy family security, the magic, the happy endings, with the comforting assurance that family and car will soon be in mortal danger again. That's the stuff to give the infantry![43]
Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang was serialised in the Daily Express newspaper in five episodes over the course of a week, from 19 to 23 October 1964.[44][45] In 1969 a strip cartoon version was issued in the UK under the title Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: Authorised Edition.[46]
In April 2002 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a stage musical based on the film, opened at the London Palladium theatre, starring Michael Ball. It closed in September 2005. It was the longest-running show ever at the London Palladium, taking over £70million in its three-and-a-half-year run.[51] A Broadway version ran at the Hilton Theatre, New York, between March and December 2005, with 34 previews and 285 regular performances.[52]
A one-hour adaptation of the story by Sherry Ashworth was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 3 April 2011, starring Imogen Stubbs as the voice of Chitty and Alex Jennings as Caractacus Potts.[53]
Three sequels to the book have been written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce. The first—Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again—was published in October 2011. The second, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time, was released in September 2012.[54] A third sequel, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Over the Moon, was released in September 2013.[55]
↑ 10s 6d equates to approximately £14 in 2023, according to calculations based on the Consumer Price Index measure of inflation.[31]
Related Research Articles
Ian Lancaster Fleming was an English writer, best known for his postwar James Bond series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his father was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. Educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva, Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing.
Goldfinger is the seventh novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. Written in January and February 1958, it was first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 23 March 1959. The story centres on the investigation by the British Secret Service operative James Bond into the gold-smuggling activities of Auric Goldfinger, who is also suspected by MI6 of being connected to SMERSH, the Soviet counter-intelligence organisation. As well as establishing the background to the smuggling operation, Bond uncovers a much larger plot: Goldfinger plans to steal the gold reserves of the United States from Fort Knox.
Moonraker is the third novel by the British author Ian Fleming to feature his fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond. It was published by Jonathan Cape on 5 April 1955 and featured a cover design conceived by Fleming. The plot is derived from a Fleming screenplay that was too short for a full novel, so he added the passage of the bridge game between Bond and the industrialist Hugo Drax. In the latter half of the novel, Bond is seconded to Drax's staff as the businessman builds the Moonraker, a prototype missile designed to defend England. Unknown to Bond, Drax is German, an ex-Nazi now working for the Soviets; his plan is to build the rocket, arm it with a nuclear warhead, and fire it at London. Uniquely for a Bond novel, Moonraker is set entirely in Britain, which raised comments from some readers, complaining about the lack of exotic locations.
Thunderball is the ninth book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, and the eighth full-length Bond novel. It was first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 27 March 1961, where the initial print run of 50,938 copies quickly sold out. The first novelisation of an unfilmed James Bond screenplay, it was born from a collaboration by five people: Ian Fleming, Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, Ivar Bryce and Ernest Cuneo, although the controversial shared credit of Fleming, McClory and Whittingham was the result of a courtroom decision.
You Only Live Twice is the eleventh novel and twelfth book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. It was first published by Jonathan Cape in the United Kingdom on 26 March 1964 and quickly sold out. It was the last novel Fleming published in his lifetime. He based his book in Japan after a stay in 1959 as part of a trip around the world that he published as Thrilling Cities. He returned to Japan in 1962 and spent twelve days exploring the country and its culture.
The Man with the Golden Gun is the twelfth and final novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series and thirteenth Bond book overall. It was first published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on 1 April 1965, eight months after the author's death. The novel was not as detailed or polished as the others in the series, leading to poor but polite reviews. Despite that, the book was a best-seller.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the tenth novel and eleventh book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. It was first published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape on 1 April 1963. Fleming changed the formula and structure from the previous novel, The Spy Who Loved Me, and made a determined effort to produce a work that adhered to his tried and tested format. The initial and secondary print runs sold out quickly, with over 60,000 copies sold in the first month, double that of the previous book's first month of sales. Fleming wrote the novel at Goldeneye, his holiday home in Jamaica, while Dr. No, the first entry in the James Bond film series by Eon Productions, was being filmed nearby.
The Spy Who Loved Me is the ninth novel and tenth book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, first published by Jonathan Cape on 16 April 1962. It is the shortest and most sexually explicit of Fleming's novels, as well as the only Bond novel told in the first person. Its narrator is a young Canadian woman, Viv Michel. Bond himself does not appear until two-thirds of the way through the book, arriving at precisely the right moment to save Viv from being raped and murdered by two criminals. Fleming wrote a prologue to the novel giving the character Viv credit as a co-author.
Octopussy and The Living Daylights is the fourteenth and final James Bond book written by Ian Fleming in the Bond series. The book is a collection of short stories published posthumously in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape on 23 June 1966.
Thrilling Cities is the title of a travelogue by the James Bond author and The Sunday Times journalist Ian Fleming. The book was first published in the UK in November 1963 by Jonathan Cape. The cities covered by Fleming were Hong Kong, Macau, Tokyo, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, New York, Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna, Geneva, Naples and Monte Carlo.
Ian Fleming Publications is the production company formerly known as both Glidrose Productions Limited and Glidrose Publications Limited, named after its founders John Gliddon and Norman Rose. In 1952, author Ian Fleming bought it after completing his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale; he assigned most of his rights in Casino Royale, and the works which followed it to Glidrose.
A number of real-life inspirations have been suggested for James Bond, the fictional character created in 1953 by British author, journalist and former Naval Intelligence officer Ian Fleming (1908–1964); Bond appeared in twelve novels and nine short stories by Fleming, as well as a number of continuation novels and twenty-six films, with seven actors playing the role of Bond.
Caractacus Pott is one of the main characters in Ian Fleming's novel Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and its film adaptation. The film version of the story makes several changes to his character.
Truly Scrumptious is a fictional character in the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and stage production based on the children's novel of the same name by author Ian Fleming.
Casino Royale is the first novel by the British author Ian Fleming. Published in 1953, it is the first James Bond book, and it paved the way for a further eleven novels and two short story collections by Fleming, followed by numerous continuation Bond novels by other authors.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 children's musical adventure film directed by Ken Hughes and produced by Albert R. Broccoli. It stars Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Lionel Jeffries, Gert Fröbe, Anna Quayle, Benny Hill, James Robertson Justice, Robert Helpmann, Heather Ripley and Adrian Hall. The film is based on the 1964 children's novel Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car by Ian Fleming, with a screenplay co-written by Hughes and Roald Dahl.
Diamonds Are Forever is the fourth novel by the British author Ian Fleming to feature his fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond. Fleming wrote the story at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica, inspired by a Sunday Times article on diamond smuggling. The book was first published by Jonathan Cape in the United Kingdom on 26 March 1956.
Live and Let Die is the second novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series of stories. Set in London, the United States and Jamaica, it was first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 5 April 1954. Fleming wrote the novel at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica before his first book, Casino Royale, was published; much of the background came from Fleming's travel in the US and knowledge of Jamaica.
John Burningham was an English author and illustrator of children's books, especially picture books for young children. He lived in north London with his wife Helen Oxenbury, another illustrator. His last published work was a husband-and-wife collaboration, There's Going to Be a New Baby, written by John and illustrated by Helen for "ages 2+".
Druce, Robert (1992). This Day our Daily Fictions: An Enquiry into the Multi-Million Bestseller Status of Enid Blyton and Ian Fleming. Amsterdam: Rodopi. ISBN978-9-0518-3401-7.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
