Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

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I did notice that the car was more 'alive' in this story than the movie. It seemed to have a real personality. Books at a Glance". Ian Fleming: The Books. London: Ian Fleming Publications . Retrieved 19 April 2012. Modern Living: Crazy-Car Craze". Time. 30 April 1973. Archived from the original on 13 July 2014 . Retrieved 5 November 2010. FOCUS OF THE WEEK: IAN FLEMING & CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG". James Bond 007. 18 September 2018. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019 . Retrieved 22 November 2020.

The audiobook version is read by David Tennant. Partly because I was in Scotland while I was listening to this, I was a little disappointed that David didn't read this in his own Scottish accent, but rather chose to read it in the English accent he uses for Doctor Who. Still, he reads it brilliantly, and there's actually a short interview with him at the end of the recording about his feeling on the book, which is a nice little extra. He speaks in his own accent in the interview. Profiles (25 April 2011). "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to be Sold at Auction" (Press release). Profiles in History. Archived from the original on 9 August 2017 . Retrieved 5 July 2018.I had a lot of fun with this book. I listened to the audiobook of this story and I believed that helped my enjoyment. It was read by David Tennant and he is terrific as a narrator of audiobooks. He has done a lot of them with the Doctor Who novels. Seriously, I think he could read the instructions of how to put a bureau together and I would give it four stars. As for the story it was fun. We get the magical car that transforms itself into whatever apparatus to bring the family into the next adventure. I thought the characters were colorful too especially the villains of the story. Yes, the story is pretty simple and pretty much straight forward but this was meant to be just a good time and it was. This can be enjoyed by all age groups also. In the story, the nasty Baron Bomburst, tyrant of the fictional land of Vulgaria, attempts to steal Chitty. The family escape thanks to Chitty's miraculous transformation into a boat, and Truly goes home to Scrumptious Manor (" Lovely Lonely Man"). The Baron sends two bungling spies to get the car, but they fail repeatedly and eventually decide to kidnap Caractacus instead, but mistake Grandpa for Caractacus. As they fly away in their airship (" Posh!"), Chitty sprouts wings and propellers, and the family pursues the airship all the way to Vulgaria. Modern Living: The Gothic-Kinetic Merlin of Wild Goose Cottage". Time. 1 November 1976. Archived from the original on 20 April 2016 . Retrieved 5 November 2010.

As Caractacus' story concludes, an awkward moment ensues when the children ask Caractacus if the story ends with him and Truly getting married. Caractacus does not answer and tries to apologize for his children when he drops Truly off at her manor, saying that the difference in their social status would make a relationship between them ridiculous, offending Truly. Returning glumly to his cottage, Caractacus is surprised to find Lord Scrumptious waiting for him with an offer to buy his candy to sell as a dog treat. Overjoyed that he has finally made a successful invention, he rushes off to tell Truly, inadvertently causing her to crash into the pond once more. He rescues her and they admit their love for each other. Then, as they return home, Chitty flies up into the sky once again, this time without wings. ("Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (Finale)).

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The reviewer for The Times noted that "junior Bonds-men... can cut their teeth on" the novel. [21] Concerning volume one of the book, The Sunday Times reviewer Oscar Turnill wrote that "Fleming was right in judging the children's market ripe for the... cliff hanger" [22] and praised his "avuncular and knowledgeable storytelling", [22] which was matched by Burningham's illustrations. [22] Adaptations [ edit ] A BBC full-cast dramatisation of Ian Fleming’s much-loved children’s classic, brought to life on radio for the first time. 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 at Higham Park. Fleming had known Higham Park as a guest of its later owner, Walter Whigham, chairman of Robert Fleming & Co. It was the last book he wrote and he did not live to see it published. I loved the narrative style of the book. It was written to be read aloud or at least for the reader to be very cognizant of the narrator's voice. The narrator speaks to the reader, adds additional commentary outside the scope of the main plot and asks questions about the reader's knowledge or thoughts on a particular point. As I read the book aloud to my daughter, I tried to be sure to add the inflections of the narrator as I read to try and draw her in to answering the questions or commenting on the points the narrator made. In reading the book I pictured the narrator as an extension of Ian Fleming and the style existing to put for the feeling of Fleming reading the story to his own children.