Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s not so pretty origins

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/dec/18/chitty-chitty-bang-bangs-not-so-pretty-origins

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Your review of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (18 December) reminded me of how Ian Fleming came up with the name. Soldiers in the Far East had to ask for a permission slip, a chitty, to leave the barracks and visit the local brothels. You can work out the rest for yourselves.Geraldine BlakeWorthing, West Sussex

• £98,000 for a new haircut (Osborne’s image-maker beats pay freeze with 42% rise, 18 December)? That’s what I call a fringe benefit.Alasdair McKeeLancaster

• Never mind flowers in bloom in December (Letters, passim). Yesterday I got bitten by midge-like insects on the North Yorkshire coast. My fault I suppose for working in a T-shirt.Janice GwilliamNorton, North Yorkshire

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