Wonders never cease!

I have been rather astonished at the number of times Brooklands is mentioned in non-motoring literature. But I did not expect to come upon a reference to Chitty-Bang-Bang in such a book. Yet there it is, in “The Adventures of Conan Doyle” by Charles Higham (Hamish Hamilton, 1976). The reference comes in the description of a séance at Kingston Vale in 1931, when Conan Doyle’s voice is supposed to have been heard, saying, among other things, “I am ready to go in the ‘chitty’ any time with you.” This was thought to have been said to Adrian Conan Doyle and to have meant “. . . Adrian’s chitty-chitty-bang-bang racing automobile. . . .” The book, incidentally, refers to Adrian Conan Doyle as something of “a professional eccentric, jousting in medieval armour, shark-fishing and dirt-track racing,” and Denis Conan Doyle is described as “a big-game hunter and racing driver”. There is much interest in this book, including the careers of the Conan Doyle family after the famous author’s death. — W.B.