Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Takes to the skies!

In the great pantheon of ‘seemingly sentient magical vehicles with a deep attachment to their drivers and a penchant for adventure and/or crime‘* Chitty Chitty Bang Bang holds a place of honour.

Since Ian Fleming first dreamed her up in the early 1960s to entertain his young son, she has soared into the collective public consciousness and stayed there – aided, of course, by Roald Dahl’s famous film adaptation, as well as a trilogy of sequels by Frank Cottrell Boyce.

And today, she takes to the skies once again! In a beautiful new picture book edition aimed at younger children, Chitty and her beloved Potts family have been reimagined by writer Peter Bently and illustrator Steve Antony for the 21st century: Chitty, as an electric car, is now metaphorically as well as literally green, and the Potts live in a wonderfully eco-friendly home. Her sense of fun, and her desire to Fight Crime, of course, remain as vibrant as ever.

The book is now available to buy in hardback and ebook – and would make an ideal birthday/Christmas/’who needs a reason, it’s 2020 and we need all the happiness we can get’ gift for the children (aged 1-100) in your life. For a sneak preview, check out the delightful trailer created by our publishers at Hachette – or take a look at our Shiny New Chitty webpage, redesigned to showcase some of Steve’s illustrations.

This stunning (and sparkly!) edition is a labour of love: the result of a close collaboration between Peter, Steve, and Ian Fleming Publications to bring all the whimsy and exuberant joy of Ian’s original story to a brand new audience. We are beyond thrilled to be sharing it with the world today.

*A much larger pantheon than you might expect. See also: the TARDIS, KITT, Farscape‘s Moya, Crowley’s Bentley in Good Omens, etc . . .