I was very excited to read this book. Look at that cover! This is essentially what it says on the tin, a brief history of different kinds of sweets and famous (mostly UK) companies. I live in York and I have a friend who lives in Birmingham so I had some background knowledge of the history of sweets with regards to the companies that operated in those areas. Chrystal clearly has a specialty in York knowledge so I did really enjoy that angle from a personal point of view.
This book hits all the key aspects you would expect and it is quite neatly organised. It firstly does a quick run through of different types of sweets, their historical origins and some interesting facts about their development. Next it hones in on some particularly important sweet companies and periods of time, before discussing advertising, wartime rationing and other factors of sweet history.
I really enjoyed reading this book and I felt like I learned a lot. I particularly liked the broad range of sweets it covered and I felt there was enough detail without it being overwhelming. This book is a little dry compared to some nonfiction books, but it was very readable and accessible. I felt it hit the information level just right and enabled me to seek out further details on certain things if I wanted to. Just be aware that it is written in a more academic style than pop-history.
Overall, I definitely recommend this book for a good overview of the history of sweets and chocolate. It was easy to dip in and out of and I had a lot of fun learning more about this topic.
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