Author Frank Cottrell
Boyce talks about his new sequel

Nearly 50 years after it last took to the skies, Ian Fleming's
classic children's tale Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has taken flight
once more.

Fleming, who lived in St Margaret's Bay, near Dover, wrote the
book for his son Casper when he was recovering from a heart attack.
He intended to write a series but died just before the story was
published in 1964.

Now a new chapter in the James Bond creator's
much-loved children's story has been written by Liverpudlian author
Frank Cottrell Boyce (pictured left).

When Frank was asked to rekindle the series by the Fleming
family almost half a century later, a slice of Kentish motor racing
history became his main resource.

"My big stroke of luck was I found out Ian Fleming wrote it
after seeing a real car called Chitty Bang Bang," said Frank,
50.

Fleming based the story on a racing car he saw as a boy at
Brooklands racetrack in Surrey. That car was Chitty Bang Bang and
built by racing driver and automobile engineer Count Louis
Zborowski, who lived on the Higham Park country estate at Bridge,
near Canterbury, in the early 1920s.

Count Zborowski made three cars of the same name at his Kent
home. He raced them at Brooklands and there is a photo of Fleming
with the car at the circuit aged about 14. Zborowski died racing
for the Mercedes team in the 1924 Italian Grand Prix, aged 29.

"I found out as much as I could about the real car," said Frank.
"I went to Brooklands and Canterbury.

"The car was so loud because of its massive engine that
Canterbury council passed a law banning the car. I guess that means
the first Asbo was given out in Canterbury."

Pierre Picton, owner of
the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, in the car

Frank's Merseyside charm is not the only reason the Fleming
family chose him to write the story.

His children's book Millions won the 2004 Carnegie Medal, while
his 2005 novel Framed was turned into a BBC television film in
2009. He is also part of the team designing the opening ceremony
for the 2012 London Olympic Games, put together by his friend Danny
Boyle, the director of Slumdog Millionaire.

Frank's story Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again sees a new
family unwittingly place the original Chitty engine in a VW camper
van, taking them on a 21st century adventure around the globe.

"My big thing is to write books that children like, but their
parents can share with them," said Frank.

"What is interesting is that when Fleming wanted to write
something for his son he went back to something he remembered as a
little boy.

"So I went back to my incredible memories of the film and my
feelings as a child in a car. I wanted to capture that lovely safe
feeling of being with your parents in the back of the car."