I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. this is a fascinating biography that is very well written. I highly reccommend

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book. I am always really glad to get the approval from Pen & Sword books, as they are usually of great interest to me and unique. This book is a great attempt to cover the life of Richard Cadbury. Cadbury is a huge brand nowadays and definetly one of the defining foodstuffs in Britain. I was excited to learn about his life. I have been a fan of the documentary series coming on History Channel about the history of food giants in the US. I would love for them to expand to cover some of the British businesspeople as well.

My feedback for this book: it is a good attempt and interesting, well-needed subject. The writing style is a bit disorganized. This book would be greatly improved by a rethink in the organization and flow. I think other reviewers agree with me in that this was a bit of a slog in some points, despite being an interesting topic. At the very least, I can appreciate the research and the subject matter. I am not saying that this isn't worth reading, but just an honest POV.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pen & Sword History for kindly providing me with a digital copy of this book for review.
I live in the Midlands, not too far from Birmingham, and have visited Cadbury’s World many times. I am therefore fairly familiar with the back story of the origins of Cadbury’s and have read other books regarding the evolution of the business. So there wasn’t an awful lot of new information in this book for me to discover.
However, what made it interesting to me was the strong use of letters and diary entries- I think I gained more of an insight into the Cadbury mind. I think you can really get a good picture of these deeply socially responsible people who worked tirelessly to protect children and the poor.
They were famous as Quakers and abstained from drinking alcohol. Something that made me smile this Christmas was that my family received a gift of some chocolates that were made by a firm founded by the so many times removed Grandson of John Cadbury. The box of these chocolates gave a suggested drink to drink whilst eating the chocolate- and yes, these suggestions were alcoholic. I did think that that decision would have been frowned upon by Richard Cadbury and his brothers. Although, that the firm had changed greatly since those early days, and I’m not sure what they would make of the firm as it is today.
I’ve found reading about the Cadbury’s really inspirational and I admire their deeply held belief in doing good works and putting back into the community. This is a well researched book and I’m so grateful to Pen & Sword for approving me and giving me the opportunity to read this book.

The book is certainly adequate in the sense that all the facts of Richard Cadbury’s life are here, but the style left much to be desired. It’s written in such a repetitive and disconnected way, jumping about all over the place, with no attempt at a sustained narrative, and with far too much reliance on letters and diaries without any attempt at psychological insight or revelation so that by the end, yes, I knew the stark facts, but didn’t feel that I had any real knowledge of the people involved. I simply wasn’t engaged and was glad to get to the end.

My thanks to Pen and Sword for a review copy of this book, which I enjoyed. It is strangely refreshing to read about a good man in public life and Richard was clearly a decent man with principles. He believed in good housing, education for all and temperance and he set about implementing these things in the world around his factory day in day out throughout his life.

Richard was his father’s choice to take over the role of head of the Cadbury family and while he was the more cautious and less ambitious of the two brothers who transformed the cheap and not very cheerful cocoa retailer into a major household name in chocolate, he was the one with artistic flair. We owe chocolate box designs to him and he left an amount of poetry as well as an eclectic collection of essays on a broad range of topics. His love of the great outdoors, knowledge and enthusiasm for plants and travel were engaging and he was a keen sportsman, despite his childhood ill health.

Unless you belong to a dwindling number for whom Protestant Christian practice is an absorbing life choice, it can be difficult to follow the mind of this scrupulous but tolerant religious man, who included hymns in the morning prayers of his factory, despite this being outside more orthodox Quaker practice, and who was prepared to marry a member of the Congregational church as his second wife at an Anglican Church.

The man was clearly loved as well as respected by his workforce and his practice of blowing a whistle to let the ladies on his staff know their train was coming so they could shelter in the dry until the last minute leaves a memorable image of him.

Fair play to Diane Wordsworth, whose book achieves the difficult task of bringing a good man to life.

Well researched, but written in a choppy, abrupt and repetitive style, this biography jumped around and made it hard to follow the timeline of Richard's life. Much of the story was excerpts from letters, diaries, or other first hand remembrances of Richard or the factory and town at the time, which was nice, but overdone in my opinion and often the excerpts didn't enhance the text. While the reader comes away with the sense that Richard was a good family man, a devote Quaker, and a good boss, otherwise I didn't feel like I knew him or his family as people.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Unfortunately, this read wasn’t for me I found it very slow and had to skip a few parts.

ThankYou to.Pen and Sword for the approval and to Netgalley.

So I jumped at the chance to read this book, thinking I'm one of Cadburys biggest customers lets see how it all began.
Richard Cadbury was the second son of Quaker John Cadbury's cocoa and chocolate factory.
Together with his younger brother George, he took over the family business in 1861 and in 1878 acquired 14 acres of land in open country, south of Birmingham, where they opened a new factory in 1879.

Over the following years, more land was bought and a model village was built for the workers which was known as Bournville.

What I discovered about Richard Cadbury wasn't really about Chocolate but about his heart. He had a huge and very kind heart which was apt considering he was credited for creating the first ever heart shaped chocolate box.

Later on Dairy Milk was suggested as a name after a customers daughter suggested it after they were all calling it Highland Milk, and Dairy Maid. Dairy Milk was launched in 1905. It was sold in unwrapped blocks and could be broken down into penny bars.

Ultimately Richard Cadburys beliefs were that all human beings should be treated equal and should live in peace. He believed in social responsibility and social reform. The brothers improved working conditions for the employees and community.

The brothers set new standards for working and living conditions which were unheard of in Victorian Britain and the Cadbury plant became known as "the factory in a garden"
Their aim was that one tenth of Bournville estate be laid out and used as parks, and recreation grounds and he did just that.

Richards father John Cadbury, a young quaker opened a shop in 1824, in Birmingham. He sold coffee, tea and drinking chocolate amongst other things.
He would of been proud to see how his beliefs were continued by future generations of Cadburys.

With the help of family letters and the remaining family members the author was able to tell us how the family lived their lives and dedicated themselves to the community.

The letters are quite detailed and are obviously from the late 1800's so the vocabulary used was different to todays. The read will not be for many as it features heavily on a quaker life and their beliefs.

Congratulations to the author for the well researched book. If you are ever in Bournville in Birmingham i highly recommend a visit to Cadburys World. Although I am not sure what Richard Cadbury would have thought of it!

This book has many diary entries, letters back and forth from and to Ricahrd Cadbury. Havign had Cadburys as a kid and fascinated by their ads, I couldnt wait to know the story. Richard Cadbury was a creative too who wrote poems and essays. Apart from being a good businessman he was a caring soul for all.

This book has been researched well using family archives and other documents and brings Richard Cadbury to life as a philanthropist as most of the Victorian chocolatier were and how also bought up the company from virtual ruin to a leading chocolate company. this also brings the story of this cadbury to the modern world.

A really detailed and interesting book about the Cadbury family. The business was failing, the product was inferior and had it not been for some inheritance money, the company would have gone! But this is more than a book about chocolate.

With the help of family letters and remaining family members the author was able to tell us so much about Richard. He was a kind, generous and good man but is, sadly, hardly remembered. He gave workers better working conditions, helped the poor, helped the elderly and so much more. I really enjoyed delving into the past of this remarkable man's life. I enjoyed reading this book.