We all know our sweets. We all remember sweets – objects of pure delight and the endless cause of squabbles, fights even, hoarding and swapping; a chance to gorge, suck, crunch and chew. But they’re by no means just a nostalgic thing of days past, and it’s not only children who love and devour sweets – gobstoppers, bulls eyes, liquorice, seaside rock, bubble gum and the like; grown-ups of all ages are partial to a good humbug, or a lemon sherbet or two – in the car, (annoyingly) at the cinema or while out walking – wherever and whenever, the sweet is there, the sweet delivers and the sweet rarely disappoints.
Sweets then are ubiquitous and enduring; they cross age, culture and gender boundaries and they have been around, it seems, forever. This book tells the story of sweets from their primitive beginnings to their place today as a billion pound commodity with its sophisticated, seductive packaging and sales, advertising and marketing. It explores the people’s favourites, past and present; but there is also a dark side to sweets – and this book does not shy away from the deleterious effect on health as manifested in obesity, tooth decay and diabetes. It delves into sweet and lollyshops in supermarkets and markets, retro sweet shops, fudge makers, vintage sweets on line, sweet manufacturing, chocolate, the grey line between sweets and ‘medicines’ ancient and modern. It goes round the world sucking, licking and crunching sweets from different countries and cultures and it examines how immigrants from all nations have changed our own sweet world.
MY REVIEW
I really enjoyed this book and thought it was a really easy and enjoyable look back at the History of Sweets through time – and that cover really grabbed my attention!
I liked the little facts and interesting bits of information that the book contained regarding the changes of some of the names of the sweets which would be frowned upon nowadays too.
The book also touches on the not so glamorous side of chocolate and sweet making too as well as using them to discuss social history and what it was like through the major periods of history including the Great War and WWII. It was great to read how the factories were requisitioned to support the war!
We were lucky enough to visit York in September and we got to see a few of the places mentioned in the book too so it was great to be able to link them to the history and background. It was really interesting to see the evolution of the brands from small shops in some cases to global suppliers in 2021.
It is 4 stars from me for this one, I really enjoyed the layout too and the different sections of the manufacturers and the release dates of the different products – really made me realise how long song of them have been around for! Highly recommended even if it did give me the urge to raid the kitchen cupboards more than once!!
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