Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car

Ian Fleming’s treasured classic soars in a deluxe edition featuring John Burningham’s vibrant, full-color original illustrations.

Famous for creating James Bond, Ian Fleming also loved fast cars — and this passion inspired him to write his only children’s book, penned for his young son, Caspar. Published fifty years ago in 1964, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car introduced the world to the thrilling adventures of the “crackpot” Pott family and the flying car with a mind of her own. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang became an instant bestseller that has been reinvented as a musical and a film (with a screenplay co-written by Roald Dahl) and has also inspired three sequels written by Frank Cottrell Boyce. To honor half a century of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Candlewick Press presents a full-color gift edition ready to zoom straight into hearts of a new generation.

Ian Fleming worked as a journalist, a stockbroker, and an assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence in the Admiralty in London during World War II, a job that amply qualified him for writing internationally best-selling thrillers about super-spy James Bond. Ian Fleming wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for his young son and died in 1964, two months before the book was first published.

John Burningham is one of the world’s most beloved children’s book creators. His work has received countless awards, including two Kate Greenaway Medals and a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor for It’s a Secret! With Candlewick Press, he is also the author-illustrator of Tug-of-War and The Way to the Zoo and the author of There’s Going to Be a Baby, illustrated by his wife, Helen Oxenbury. His work is featured in the collectors’ volume John Burningham. He lives in London.