Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car is a children's story written by Ian Fleming and illustrated by John Burningham.

Although Fleming wanted The Daily Mail cartoonist Trog—the pseudonym of Wally Fawkes—as the book's illustrator, the newspaper did not allow him to work on the project, so Burningham was commissioned.

The book was loosely adapted as a 1968 film of the same name with a screenplay by Roald Dahl and Ken Hughes; a subsequent novelisation was also published.

Caractacus Pott, a former commander in the Royal Navy, invents sweets that can also be used as whistles, and sells the idea to Lord Skrumshus, the wealthy owner of a local confectionery factory.

After the restoration is complete, the car is named for the noises made by its starter motor and the characteristic two loud backfires it makes when it starts.

At first, Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang is just a big and powerful car, but as the book progresses it surprises Pott's family by beginning to exhibit independent actions.

By March 1961 Ian Fleming had written nine books at the rate of one a year: eight novels and a collection of short stories, all featuring the character James Bond.

[2][3] Legal difficulties before publication led to a hearing at the High Court in London on 24 March 1961, putting great strain on Fleming.

[8] He had been forbidden access to a typewriter, in case the strain of writing a new Bond novel was too much for him, and he asked for a pen and paper and wrote the story by hand.

[9] He attacked the project with gusto and wrote to his publisher, Michael Howard of Jonathan Cape, joking that "There is not a moment, even on the edge of the tomb, when I am not slaving for you".

[12] Fleming considered the idea of publishing the book under the pseudonym "Ian Lancaster" (his first two names), but Howard counselled against it and he agreed.

[13] Fleming did not live to see Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang published; he suffered a further heart attack on 11 August 1964 and died in the early morning of the following day—his son Caspar's twelfth birthday—in Canterbury, Kent.

An obscene song from the First World War may also be connected to the name; this referred to the "chits", or passes, given to officers to visit the bordellos of Paris.

[22] When Fleming sent his publisher the manuscripts for the first two volumes of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang in May 1961, he suggested The Daily Mail cartoonist Trog—the pseudonym of Wally Fawkes—as the book's illustrator.

[11][23] Fleming was an admirer of Trog's work and considered him a friend, describing him as "an extremely nice man and great fun".

[25] Fleming asked his friend Amherst Villiers if he would be able to come up with a design for the car which was "really snazzy looking to excite the imagination of children about 7–10".

[11] He explained that the publishers "have got one or two artists lined up for the figures, landscapes, etc, they can't find anybody with enough technical know-how and imagination to draw a suitable Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang".

[27] According to Fleming's biographer, Andrew Lycett, Villiers's sketch was of "a low green rakish car, which looked like an SSK Mercedes with a round Delauney Belleville radiator".

[11] Cape then commissioned John Burningham, who had recently won the 1963 Kate Greenaway Medal for his book Borka: The Adventures of a Goose with No Feathers.

[38] The reviewer for The Times drew parallels with Fleming's other work, and noted that the book would be an excellent choice for younger readers before they started on a Bond novel.

[42] The author Richard Usborne, writing for The Daily Telegraph, also reviewed Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang in the light of the James Bond novels, and wrote: These CCBB stories are highly professional in the field of children's books.

[51] A Broadway version ran at the Hilton Theatre, New York, between March and December 2005, with 34 previews and 285 regular performances.

[52] A one-hour adaptation of the story by Sherry Ashworth was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 3 April 2011, starring Imogen Stubbs as the voice of Chitty and Alex Jennings as Caractacus Pott.