A famous author surprised pupils at Park Gate Primary School with the all new Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car – a camper van with wings.
Frank Cottrell Boyce and the school reading group the Discovery Club with the new Chitty car
Author and screen writer Frank Cottrell Boyce visited the pupils at the school in Northmore Road to celebrate the release of his book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again.
Frank has written many books including the award-winning Millions – which was made into an Oscar-winning film by director Danny Boyle – and has written episodes of Coronation Street.
The children, who were delighted to see the Volkswagen camper van, chanted “make it fly” while Frank introduced the vehicle to the school’s reading group, The Discovery Club.
Pupils Anna Willis, 11, and 10-year-old Thomas Coll said the original story was magical and they were excited to read the new book.
“It’s a flying car,” said Anna, “and we still can’t make a car fly, so this one was really cool to see.
“I want a flying car.”
Thomas added: “The teachers told us we were one in four schools to be visited by Frank, so we were really lucky to have him here.
“It was a once in a life-time opportunity.”
The book – the first in the trilogy – tells the family adventure of how a father, who was made redundant, sets about reconstructing a camper van. He unwittingly uses the engine from the original Chitty car which has its own agenda.
Everyone packs in the camper van to read the new Chitty Chitty Bang Bang book
Frank wrote the sequel to the original book by Ian Fleming after being contacted by the Fleming family.
He read a section of his new story to the pupils and autographed books for them.
Head teacher, Rebecca Kingsland said: “We felt privileged to have him here. He was fantastic with the children; he read to them and talked to them about how he aspired to be an author.
“He told them he discovered he wanted to be an author when he was in year six at school. It engages the children to know someone their age knew he wanted to do that and has now written some really cool books.”
Before the event the children designed drawings of what they thought a Chitty car could look like.
Frank has been touring with the camper van across the UK. Order the book online at www.panmacmillan.com.