This is a comprehensive history of the company Cadbury’s. It looks into its geographical and business history as well as the social impact it had upon consumers and workers.
What I particularly like is its explanation of the Bournville estate and its purpose; something that is useful when considering the impact of a blossoming company.

A steam-trainspotter's history of Cadbury

I grew up with Cadbury's chocolate and looked forward to reading this book as I'd looked forward to spending a pocket money shilling on a bar of Fruit and Nut.

Cadbury's is certainly a fascinating story. Two brothers turn around their father's ailing business, using money inherited from their mother and a lot of hard work. They build Bournville, build brands and move out around the world...

This book though tends to descend too quickly and too often into the weeds of deep detail, such as the number of rooms in a recreation facility. Meanwhile only 2 very short paragraphs are given to the momentous Kraft takeover.. Early chapters stop in the late 1920s, coinciding perhaps with the end of an earlier history of Cadbury.

So worth reading but a story unfulfilled I think.

Myths & Mortals (Numina Trilogy,Book 2)
by Charlie N. Holmberg
due 4-16-2019
47 North
4.5 / 5.0

Charlie N. Holmberg has done it again! This series, Numina Trilogy, started out strong, but this one is even better. Her fantastic world building draws you into a place of fascination, mystique and intrigue. Of good and evil. Of Celestials and Noscons; Grifters and Riggers. This is world full of choice and full of emotional tugs, it carries a message and an incentive to think for yourself, and what defines good and evil for you....and how can you be sure....
The last books leaves Rone with hard choices and facing his growing affection for Sandis. In this one we learn more about Sandis life, her family conflicts, and see her become increasingly distrustful. We are also introduced to a new vessel, Bastien and we continue the search and chase for Kazan.
This is a strong and fun series, with a deep yet subtle message that is unforgettable.
Thanks to 47 North for this ebook ARC for review.
#MythsAndMortals #netgalley

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I know there are people out there who do not like chocolate. I’m not taking about those people who are allegoric to chocolate, but people who simply do not like chocolate. I know these people exist in some mythic realm that also houses those people who do not read books. But I really do not want to meet those people.

This book is about chocolate and, therefore, it is yummy. But even if you are one of those people who doesn’t like chocolate this is a book that you should enjoy.

In the United States, Cadbury is most likely famous primary for its Cadbury Eggs – or for the commercials for those Cadbury Crème eggs, but the company is actually famous for much more.

Like Flake. I mean, Flake is terrific. Or Roses, who doesn’t like Roses?

Okay fine, but even if you lack taste, this book is delicious.

Wordsworth traces the company’s history from its start in Bull Street in Birmingham in the 1820s to the most recent corporate sale with Kraft. In 1824, John Cadbury with a stake from his father, a draper, opened a tea shop that also sold cocoa beans. The Cadbury family was a Quaker family, and John Cadbury was also a temperance advocate, which was one of the reasons he put forward chocolate as an alternative to drinking. (He obviously never had a Guinness and chocolate milkshake).

Eventually the firm was passed down to his sons Richard and George who saved the business by expanding it and refining it – in part because of Dutch tech that allowed for the making of better chocolate.

However, it is important to note that the Cadbury family was far different than many in today’s heavy capitalist society where workers are being replaced with machines or losing wages and benefits. The Cadbury family actually seemed to have cares for their workers. What is most surprising is the emphasis on health and learning that the firm gave its employees. The workers had sports field, class, doctors, and dentists. It is turn that at some point there were some strange rules – like the ones about married women – but considering the overall care and concern that the family extended to employees. Wordsworth does an excellent job of making this attitude clear and connecting it to the family’s Quaker’s beliefs. She also discusses the two ways such care could be seen – Patriarchal or patriarchist.

The emphasis of this book, therefore, is on what Cadbury was and what in some ways was lost in the later mergers and buy outs. The later mergers of the firm while dealt with are not dealt with in depth. This leads to more of a sense of loss when Kraft enters the picture. It is impossible to think of a big business being so vested in the success of their employees on such a level.

In part, one does wish there was more analysis about the changes or differences. To be fair, though, it is entirely possible that such a criticism could be unwarranted. Wordsworth seems to have been contracted for a slim volume so the cutting of information must have been difficult. So, if it is a fault, it is more to do with contract. Wordsworth makes up for a bit of the gloss at the end by including a further reading list. She also includes several documents – such as testimony from a libel trial – and interviews with employees.

After just purchasing a rather large quantity of their deliciously alluring creme eggs the timing of my reading of this book documenting the history of the two hundred years of the Cadbury firm in all its various manifestations could not have been more apposite. As Diane Wordsworth points out there is so much material comprising of economics, social and political history together with biography and business organisational study to be covered that the book can only give just a brief look into the remarkable story of both the company and its visionary owners. Many of the subjects covered would warrant books devoted to them in their own right.

Packed with photographs we learn how from a small shop in Bull Street Birmingham in 1824 Cadbury moved in 1879 to a new site outside of the city where Bournville (the name was chosen to imply to the public a connection to France the home of fine chocolate) became a model village and indeed even in 2003 it was voted by The Joseph Rowntree Foundation as "one of the nicest places to live in Britain" .

The book covers not only the development of its products, the packaging and advertising but just as interestingly documents the paternalistic and for the time enlightened approach that this family of Quaker owners adopted towards their workforce. There are chapters devoted to education and training, sport and recreation, workers welfare together with the various pension and savings schemes provided. We also learn how Bournville was in the vanguard of the "New Garden City" movement. Of course things change and since 2010 Cadbury has been wholly owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods). It seems light years away from the original opening of that one shop in Bull Street.

A fascinating read that delves into a multitude of different themes from chocolate making to the slave trade, from housing provision to healthcare. Certainly well worth a read perhaps being accompanied by the consumption of one of their products.