Chocolate Wars

From Cadbury to Kraft: 200 years of Sweet Success and Bitter Rivalry

By: Deborah Cadbury

Narrated by: Finty Williams

Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

The delicious true story of the early chocolate pioneers, by the award-winning writer and direct descendant of the famous chocolate dynasty, Deborah Cadbury.

In Chocolate Wars best-selling historian and award-winning documentary maker Deborah Cadbury takes a journey into her own family history to uncover the rivalries that have driven 250 years of chocolate empire-building. Beginning with an account of John Cadbury, who founded the first Cadbury's coffee and chocolate shop in Birmingham in 1824, Chocolate Wars goes on to chart the astonishing transformation of the company's fortunes under his grandson George. But while the Cadbury dynasty is the fulcrum of the narrative, this is also the story of their Quaker rivals, the Frys and Rowntrees, and their European competitors, the Nestles, Suchards and Lindts. These rivalries drove the formation of the huge chocolate conglomerates that still straddle the corporate world today, and have first call on our collective sweet tooth.

This is narrative history at its most absorbing, peopled by wonderfully colourful characters - the true story of the chocolate pioneers, the visions and ideals that inspired them and the mouth-watering concoctions they created.

©2010 Deborah Cadbury (P)2010 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"A wonderful writer who keeps you turning the pages as if her book was a thriller." ( The Times)

"Absolutely stupendous. This is history as it should be. It is stunningly written. I could not put it down." ( Alison Weir)

"Beautifully structured and sympathetically narrated… successfully brings together science, suspense and sentiment. Something for everyone." ( Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times)

"A stylish writer [who] describes the splendours and miseries of these wonders in their true colours and with understanding of the ethics and aspirations of their times." ( New Scientist)

"Fascinating… heroes, villains and victims populate this gripping story." ( Daily Telegraph)

The problem with this book

This is supposed to be a great book. The story of one of the greatest chocolate factories in the world. The problem is the author. You will not find anything negative about Cadbury. It's all about everybody elses mistakes. Because the Cadbury founders were quakers. And they were only thinking about what was best for the community. In the beginning I loved it. In the end I was so borred.

For the love all all things chocolate!

I really enjoyed this story. Beautifully written and perfectly narrated.
As a bit of a choc-o-holic there is so much more to one of our favourit foods. It was also a wonderful insite into such remarkable visionaries that were the Quakers who worked so hard and risked so much to make the world a better place. Highly recommended story.