Chitty Chitty Bang Bang flies again... as a camper van in first book sequel to children's classic
By Lucy Buckland
And Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again is already being dubbed truly scrumptious by the original author's estate.
The family of Ian Fleming, who died before the original book was published, handpicked author Frank Cottrell Boyce to write the sequel, which is out on Friday.
The new Chitty: Frank Cottrell Boyce's sequel has Chitty
as a camper van rather than a racing car
Chitty has undergone some changes in the last 50 years, going from a wrecked Grand Prix racing motorcar to a sparkling VW camper van.
In the new book, the Tooting family find an abandoned engine and fit it to their camper van.
It turns out to belong to Chitty, who takes control of the van.
Flying high: The 1968 film, starring Benny Hill, Dick Van
Dyke, Heather Ripley, Lionel Jeffries, Adrian Hall and Sally Ann Howes, is a
children's classic
Up in the air: Original author Ian Fleming (left in 1958)
and sequel author Frank Cottrell Boyce, who said at first he was daunted by his
task
The Fleming family approached Cottrell Boyce, whose first book Millions, won the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2004, to write the sequel and said they are 'absolutely thrilled' with the results.
Ms Fleming told The Independent on Sunday: 'There has been a great deal of care taken. It's a jolly tricky ask.
'He's made it funny and a bit frightening, and fun for grown-ups too.'
THE REAL CHITTY
Ian Fleming's original novel was dedicated to
the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car, built in 1920 by Count Louis
Zborowski, a rich motor car enthusiast, on his estate in Canterbury. Fleming had
seen the car when he was 16.
After suffering his first heart attack, Fleming wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for his eight-year-old son Casper.
And when he sent the two volumes off to publishers Jonathan Cape - who handled his James Bond novels - he was unsure what they would think.
He needn't have worried as the novels became a firm favourite with children.
But tragically Fleming never got to see his success as he died of a heart attack just as the first copies of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang were leaving the printers in 1964, the day his son turned 12.
Casper died from a drug overdose just 11 years later at 23.
Father-of-seven Mr Cottrell Boyce said he was unsure whether to take up the mammoth task.
A scene from the 1968 film. The new book will bring the
tale into the modern world
Potty: Characters like Caractacus Potts (played by Dick
Van Dyke), pictured here with his breakfast-making machine in a still from the
1968 film, warmed audiences' hearts
He said: 'I have no idea what made the Flemings think of asking me to write the sequel. I haven't asked them in case it's all a case of mistaken identity.
'I wasn't sure whether to say yes at first, but when I mentioned it at supper in my house, any doubts I might have had about whether the book actually needed a sequel were shouted down.
'Everyone wanted me to do this. So I went back to the book for the first time since I was a boy and was delighted to discover that, first of all, it's really good and, secondly, it's crying out for a sequel.
Laughs: Ian Fleming's classic children's novel was adapted
for film by Roald Dahl who wrote the script
'The original book ends with the car heading off into the sunset with the family on board. They were surely going to have more adventures. But Fleming sadly died before he could say what those adventures might be.'
The film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, made in 1968, was written for the screen by Roald Dahl and brought new elements – the Child Catcher for instance –to the story.
It remains one of the classic children's film's made this century, starring Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts and Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious.
Read the first chapter of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies
Again at http://uk.chittyfliesagain.com/the-book.html
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2044625/Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang-Flies-Again-camper-van-1st-sequel-childrens-classic-50-yrs.html#ixzz1rrysjPO9
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