I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I must apologise that it has taken me so long to supply my review. Severe chronic illnesses have affected my life in recent years (not COVID) and have left me unable to write reviews. I have still read the books, left myself notes, but can’t give the level of review I usually give. It is my hope to return to that level in the future, and will include posting detailed reviews here, to my blog, to Amazon Australia, and Goodreads.

Please accept my apologies, along with the following basic review:

I truly loved this book. The history of chocolate production through early industrialisation at the dawn of consumerism. I love history books, and to see it from the point of view of a well-known, much-loved brand, truly held my attention. Highly recommend.

Loved this story. A History of Cadbury was very well written with an easy to follow the storyline and well-crafted characters.

Synopsis: When John Cadbury came to Birmingham in 1824, he sold tea, coffee and drinking chocolate in a small shop on Bull Street. Drinking chocolate was considered a healthy alternative to alcohol, something Cadbury, a Quaker, was keen to encourage. In 1879, the Cadburys moved to Bournville and created their ‘factory in a garden’ – an unprecedented move. It is now ironic that today’s Bournville is surrounded by that urban sprawl the Cadburys were so keen to get away from. This book looks at some of the social impact this company has had since its inception, both on the chocolate and cocoa business in general and on the community at large, both within and without the firm of Cadbury. In 2024, Cadbury's will be celebrating 200 years of the first store opening. This is the story of how the company began, how it grew, and how they diversified in order to survive.

Can't wait to read more from these authors. I highly recommend this book.

This was a completely unexpected thrill! From the founding to the future, I found myself excited to learn about the company of who's chocolate I so crave. It was a welcome relief during the pandemic, as it sparked discussions with my husband and friends, and led to further research on my part. Thought invoking, and interesting.

Once I got into the groove of reading this book, it took me a surprisingly short time to finish it. It was surprising because I had started it over a year ago and had not made significant progress then. I must say my review copy had missing letters, the same ones every time ‘fl’ and ‘fi’ so that might have been a factor. I start with this to show that this late start did not mar what I got from the book finally.


As any respectable adult who grew up in the nineties ( in India, a relevant mention once I found out something startling at the end of the book), I subsisted primarily on Cadbury’s chocolates. This was when we were allowed to have chocolates, and when relatives from abroad did not provide random variety during yearly visits. I thought I would find the birth of the company interesting. That statement might be putting it mildly since I found out so much more than just the running of the place. There were the social and economic implications of a company such as this which were completely new to me. Also new to me was the reason Cadbury changed recently. I was not very adept in keeping with world news and knew nothing of what happened at the company. The world has evolved over the years and that is reflected in some of the information provided.


I highly recommend this book to anyone even mildly interested in Cadbury’s and what they might signify.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

This is a very interesting and thorough history of the first 100 years of the Cadbury company and its founders.  Scattered throughout are many vintage postcards and photos of various chocolate boxes and the factory workers producing early chocolate items such are Easter eggs.

This book is a great piece of history on the Cadbury family and how they grew their business to the empire it is today. Even if you do not like non-fiction or history, you will find this book extremely interesting, in my opinion. It does not just tell the good, it also tells the bad as well. If you love Cadbury eggs, and buy them up when they are available, this is a must read. Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thought that this was a really great insight in to the Cadbury family, their history and how the business has developed and grown since it was set up back in 1824 as a single tea shop on Bull Street in Birmingham by John Cadbury.

I liked that the book introduced the significant family members that were involved in the Company and its set up, and subsequent running. The family had a massive impact on the local area and the community and showed a genuine interest in the needs of their employees, both from a work life balance point of view though to health concerns, which was unprecedented for that time, and indeed is not always taken up by Companies being run today – they really were trend setters.

The book also talks about the different products and the development of the different packages, and how they managed through wars at the start of the last century and the impact it had on their production, their employees, and their customers.

During The Great War, a large proportion of their employees enlisted to join the British Armed Forces and they held their jobs open for them to return too. They also turned two of their factories over to be used as hospitals.

During World War II, parts of the Bournville factory were turned over to war work, producing milling machines and seats for fighter aircraft – they really played their parts. Workers ploughed their football fields to plant crops too. As chocolate was regarded as an essential food, it was placed under government supervision for the entire war, they did alter the make-up of their famous Dairy Milk bar after milk was rationed. The wartime rationing of chocolate ended in 1950, and normal production resumed.

The author also discusses the recent take over where the Cadbury business was bought by Kraft Foods, now Mondelēz International, Inc. who took them over in 2010.

The book was also a step back in time for me as I will always remember going for a visit round Cadbury’s World with school, I was so excited as I knew you got free chocolate as you went round, but after the first few rooms the smell of the warm chocolate made me feel nauseous – I always used to say how could you work with chocolate all day and not want to eat it all – I had my answer!

It is 4 stars from me for this one, it was a good insight in to how Cadbury shaped the local area and community too, it was well written and an enjoyable read too, the author has clearly done an awful lot of research and knows her topic. Highly recommended and a great addition to my social history collection!

An interesting history, competently written and beautifully illustrated.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Geschichte zum anfassen (und aufessen) - die wahrhaft besten Geschichten schreibt das Leben und hier liegt ein Buch vor, daß zudem fasziniert durch die Personen und Umstände, die die Historie geprägt haben. Toll!

Few people who love chocolate actually stop to consider how the chocolate we eat today evolved. A History of Cadbury is not only written about the history of chocolate, it focuses on one of the premier families in the chocolate industry. Our favorite milk chocolate bar is a side product of the drinking chocolate that started everyone's addiction. As a Quaker family restricted from drinking coffee, the Cadbury's beverage of choice became the cornerstone of today's multi-million chocolate lover's market. The history of Cadbury is a very fascinating read for any chocolate lover.

This book charts the history of Cadbury from it's beginnings to the present day - although rather more detail is obviously placed on the early beginnings as Cadbury is now owned by Mondelez International.

I hadn't realised that Cadbury began by selling drinking chocolate and only later diversified into chocolate itself. In fact I spent the few chapters telling my partner all the various little tidbits that I knew he would like to know also. One of which is that there used to be a Plain Tray - I never really gave much thought as to why it is called Milk Tray! Milk chocolate was the turnaround for the company as it outsold the plain almost immediately.

Bournville was of course a Garden City set up by Cadbury and I loved all the social history aspects of reading about what the employees could and couldn't do. I also hadn't realised that the Cadbury family were Quakers. I'm inspired now to go and visit Bournville - not Cadbury World, but the actual village and also Selly Manor.

There are lots of photos and illustrations throughout. However each chapter does somewhat repeat itself at times, as they are arranged into themes and not chronological. Personally I would have preferred to just go through the years to the present day in one go.

There are some fabulous first hand accounts of what life was like at the factory and in the village and if nothing else it is good that these have been preserved for future generations to read.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for an ARC.

Beautifully illustrated history of Cadbury! Fascinating history of one of my most beloved chocolates. The start of the company and growth to the modern day company is well written and easy to read.


I received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

An interesting and fun read about chocolate and the Cadbury family legacy. This is an in depth read and kept my attention from beginning to end. I highly recommend this to all chocolate lovers with a curiosity abouth Cadbury, you won't be disappointed.

Ahhh! One of my favorite chocolates! It's right with Swiss chocolate- yum! I think more books on great candy makers should be written. I can't believe this company is 200 years old, though only the past 100 are covered in this book. Just amazing. Even more amazing is the fact that their chocolates really haven't changed from when I was a child way back in the 60's! Hershey's, sure has over the years. I still remember the goodness of Hersheys when I was a kid, it's not the same today, sadly. I haven't seen a book on Nestle candy or Nedderegger- so authors take note! There's market! great book! Entertaining and engaging story.

This is a collection book about this historical and marvelous chocolate maker. The book includes the social impact of this first factory and the begging of this emblematic brand.

#AHistoryOfCadbury #NetGalley

This was a really interesting look at the history of Cadbury Chocolate. I live near Hershey, so am very familiar with the history of that chocolate company, but had never heard about how Cadbury got started. The fact that it had Quaker roots and John Cadbury thought that his chocolate drink could take the place of alcohol was fascinating. This is truly one of those books that you will find little pieces of interesting trivia!

Who doesn’t love chocolate? Maybe 1% of the population? And how many of the 99% have never heard of Cadbury? Probably zero?

The book tells the story of the firm from when John Cadbury opened his first store in 1824, when he was only 23. This was in Bull Street, Birmingham, selling tea and coffee. At that time, John simply roasted cocoa beans and ground them with a pestle and mortar. However, by 1841, the firm was offering fifteen different types of chocolate for eating or drinking plus ten different cocoas. It was in 1866 that John’s son, George, returned from Holland with the technology to remove excess cocoa butter. That’s when the firm really took off and started developing the products we are familiar with today, e.g. Crunchie (1913) and Milk Tray (1915).

John was a devout Quaker and believed his chocolate drink could be an alternative to alcohol. The book is very good indeed on how the firm looked after staff. They weren’t allowed to smoke or drink, but they were taken on excursions into the countryside, courtesy of the firm. Many of the staff lived in densely populated city streets and were unlikely to visit the country as a matter of course. Cadbury strongly believed that a happy healthy workforce made for a much stronger company.

The owners’ Quaker beliefs led them, 1879, into building a new factory in the countryside with a playing field alongside for sports. At the same time, they built a few houses for senior staff nearby. Then they build almhouses. By 1901, they had built 300 houses for workers and handed the deeds of the estate to the newly established Bournville Village Trust charity. The Cadburys didn’t want the houses to be restricted to their own workers. That could lead to anyone leaving the factory (voluntarily or not) also losing their home and that wouldn’t be right. Although this was the early 1900s, not the early 1800s with its excessive exploitation of workers, it still seems astonishingly enlightened.

Because each chapter covers a different theme, it seems that the book re-starts several times. The same period is re-visited in almost every chapter. This was frustrating at first but makes sense when you realise the strong thematic divisions.

It’s a fascinating book with some immense detail and it covers a wide variety of topics in a very interesting way, e.g. the quotes recorded in 1929 from staff who had started many years earlier and it has some lovely illustrations, but I felt it was only half a history. John Cadbury had three sons, the youngest of whom was George (1839 – 1922). Most of the topics covered by the book lack detail after the 1920s -30s. Maybe that’s because there’s less progress and change once that hands-on generation of the Cadbury’s had died out and the firm was well established – unlikely, I would have thought. Maybe it’s because the earlier material had been covered by a history of the first hundred years; and primary research material after the 1930s was less easy to obtain. Maybe the book length was fixed and the author ran out of space. Who knows? Sir Dominic Cadbury says in the introduction, “[…] Diane Wordsworth’s book focuses on the development of the business of the first 100 years and the roles of Richard and George Cadbury”. Very true.

#AHistoryOfCadbury #NetGalley

I received this book through the publisher via Netgalley.

Cadbury chocolates are a source of fond memories for me, especially my beloved Cadbury cream eggs each spring. Therefore, I was keenly interested in finding out more about the company behind my childhood delights--but also approached the book with a measure of caution. Would this be mere company propaganda, and/or a dry and boring read?

While the book is positive about Cadbury, it also doesn't shy away from old and new controversies--and never is it boring. I found it to be fascinating all the way through, with the text throughout embellished by great photographs and Cadbury product artwork. I only recently read that the chocolate industry in the northern British city of York was started by Quakers in the 19th century--and lo and behold, Cadbury was likewise started by a Quaker family. They brought their values to their business as well, which in many ways was positive--providing fair wages, reasonable work hours, and compassion that seems almost strange in the era, such as letting female workers wait in a heated dressing room and then signalling them when their train arrived. Cadbury even created its own company town, Bournville. However, there were also restrictions such as not letting married women work full time--home was where they belonged--and enforcing prayers and swim lessons for all employees.

The Cadburys were heavily involved in the abolition of the slave trade, but rightly endured some criticism in the early years of the 20th century when they discovered that the native labor on their cocoa plantations in San Thome and Principe could only be described as slavery. The firm tried to follow proper channels to remedy the situation--going through the Portuguese government--only to be outright lied to. Unfortunately, this only became evident after years had passed.

The book provides actual documentation from the time period on this episode, as well as many fascinating descriptions of working for Cadbury, as told by decades-long employees. It also talks briefly about the recent aggressive takeover by the American company Kraft and how the assets have since been divided and altered.

I recommend this book not just for people who've enjoyed Cadbury's products, but anyone with an interest in 19th and early 20th-century history and labor practices. Cadbury did a lot right and that's undoubtedly a major reason why they are still around today.

I really enjoyed this look at the history of Cadbury chocolate and the Cadbury family. How it began, and prospered, through good times and bad, made a very entertaining story. The photographs are wonderful with my favorite being the Easter Egg production. Posters advertising Cadbury's are interspersed though out.

Learning about Quaker John Cadbury's interest in the temperance movement and how he encouraged drinking chocolate as healthy alternative to alcohol was just one of the facts that personalized this history for me. The logistics that went into creating milk chocolate, designing elaborate boxes for the chocolate, and the way Cadbury treated its employees were eye-opening. Now when I'm savoring my favorite Cadbury chocolates, I'll be able to appreciate what all went into creating them. Fascinating.

FTC disclosure: I would like to thank Pen and Sword for providing me with an advance reader copy via access to the galley for free through the NetGalley program.

I love chocolate and I love history so it was no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one! I would recommend it to anyone. Those who are fascinated with historical accounts presenting the inception of companies, the evolution of business practices among the 19th and 20th centuries, confectionary in the age of industrial revolution, and of course, anyone who enjoys chocolate would particularly be enlightened.

The author, Diane Wordsworth, gave great insight into the development of the Cadbury company through a chronological telling of events. I really appreciated the thoroughness of the material covered. Excerpts of article letters, testimonials, and the photos, illustrations, and pictorial designs really enhanced my enjoyment of the book. From the beautiful factory grounds to a woman carefully painting the classic logo on a box of chocolate, I really valued the inclusion of such a gallery of historical images within the book.

I was interested to learn about the historical perception of chocolate itself and the creation of product. From boilers to produce steam, weighing chocolate by hand, moulds, the shaker, transportation, the setting the chocolate on stone slabs in a cellar, the boxing of chocolate, I found myself engrossed in the process of it all.

I also appreciated the discussion of the foundational company culture and values concerning the welfare of their employees. Fair wages for factory workers, as well as the offering of occupational medicine, apprenticeships, and vocational training through an employment package really helped to define the ethos and build a sense of community which was a unique concept among companies at the time. The exploration of working conditions as they relate to business philosophy was an important issue to cover in this book. With support for the abolition of slave trade and labor in the Portuguese islands of cocoa harvesting, this content would make an interesting volume in and of itself. "In these professedly enlightened days, commercial progress cannot well be considered apart from moral progress; we want to know not only how work is done but who and what they are who do it."

The company story was told with great context. Significant topics of the time such as women’s suffrage movement and the impact of wartime were mentioned. With employees called to service and in the face of ingredient shortages due to imposed restrictions on the transportation of cocoa, a diversification of the company had also included the manufacturing of dried vegetables, biscuits, and fruit pulp. Other contributions in meeting the needs of the military through craftsmanship included part making for guns and aeroplanes which I found intriguing.

I would be interested to see an extension of this book to include additional details of the changes experienced in the industrial age as it relates to a deeper look into confectionery factory life and the process of chocolate-making. I can only imagine the difficulty in organizing and deciding upon the inclusion or exclusion of content for this or a subsequent piece since the manufacturing of chocolate is so multifaceted. I'd also be curious about additional material with the incorporation of the future of the company in reference to an entrepreneurial endeavor by Cadbury's great-grandson, James, who has since started a company called Love Cocoa. The characteristics of these products include being natural and free-from palm oil and embraces environmental conservation efforts through a partnership with the Rainforest Foundation.

I think this would make a great gift and coffee table book for your home, office, or business place.