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The History of Sweets

Tracing the story of sweets from the creation of khanda in India around 500 BCE to today’s lucrative market, this volume explores topics including their medicinal uses, wartime rationing, slavery and health. After detailing the history of chocolate and favourites from around the world, it also profiles UK manufacturers and takes a nostalgic look at how sweets have been referenced in music and literature.
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RRP £25.00

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Product information:
  • Publisher: Pen & Sword
  • Year: 2021
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 254pp
  • Illustrated: Yes
  • Dimensions: 240x162mm
  • ISBN: 9781526778857
  • Condition: New
  • Weight: 0.7kg
Product code:
537321
Product information
Full publisher description
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.
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