- Hardcover: 432 pages
- Publisher: Bantam Press (14 Oct 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0593049543
- ISBN-13: 978-0593049549
- Product Dimensions: 20.4 x 15 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 783,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Guardian, Tom Jaine
'Richardson has pulled countless plums out of this lucky dip of a subject.'
The Guardian, Tom Jaine
'Sweets opens suprising doors on to history. Richardson has pulled countless plums out of this lucky dip of a subject.'
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Sweets: A History of Temptation; by Tim Richardson
This is a delightful book, combining erudite and painstaking research worldwide with an exuberant enthusiasm for, and an ability to describe the taste and texture of, his chosen subject - sweets of all kinds, from aniseed balls to gobstoppers, from crystallised fruits to rhubarb & custards. Mr. Richardson has a rare quality of making us aware of his own preferences whilst giving a straightforward account of the infinite variety of sweets, as the final course of an elaborate feast in the middle east or as a sneaky comfort to a tired commuter in the European west. The style is witty, the facts intriguing, and the whole mightily entertaining. I loved it.
On the serious side or for those who think sweets are frivolous there are chapters on the social revolution wrought by the Quaker chocolate giants of eighteenth century Britain, on the medicinal uses of certain ingredients, and one chapter,"Bad Candy", on the controversies and criticisms, the passionate put-downs of the anti-sweet brigade.
The form of the book is charming with short Lucky Dip sections on such things as liquorice, chewing gum and rock, inserted between chapters, so that the reader may dip into oddments when he does not feel up to the (quite remarkable) history of the sugar industry.
Keep this book by your bedside and eat it a piece at a time or gorge yourself on it, marvelling at the wealth of trivia, and at the devotion and scholarship of the "world's first international confectionery historian"!
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The author states in the prologue that he is the World's first confectionary historian. Well, he is certainly a delightful one and his book is written with such enthusiasm that I found myself almost able to taste the lovely sweets he described. If only it had been sold with free samples for each chapter! Tim Richardson has 'studied' (and munched upon) sweets from every part of the world and this book is just the most enjoyable way to share his journey.
I'm going to try and track down some of the sweets he mentions, just so that I can share in his findings. I heartily recommend this book and hope to meet the author(would be let down if he isn't surrounded by bowls of sweets) at some book event. Somebody give this man a few sets of spare teeth and a website where we can all order the various delights he has tempted his readers with.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is an excellent, highly entertaining and informative book on the history of sweet-making and well worth reading. The few grammatical errors do not detract in the least - these exist in practically all books.
What IS very disappointing, however,is that there are no photographs at all - even a few line drawings or some copyright-free engravings of sweet-making entrepreneurs would have added to the pleasure of reading. And a book predicated on nostalgia cries out for photos. I bought this book for my partner who refused to read it once he realised there were none whatsoever - he wanted to be reminded of what Black Jacks, Sherbert Dabs etc used to look like. And, in principle, I think any book on the history of its subject needs the inclusion of photographs. Shame on the publishers for that.
What IS very disappointing, however,is that there are no photographs at all - even a few line drawings or some copyright-free engravings of sweet-making entrepreneurs would have added to the pleasure of reading. And a book predicated on nostalgia cries out for photos. I bought this book for my partner who refused to read it once he realised there were none whatsoever - he wanted to be reminded of what Black Jacks, Sherbert Dabs etc used to look like. And, in principle, I think any book on the history of its subject needs the inclusion of photographs. Shame on the publishers for that.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A great read
I wasn't really sure what to expect when I purchased Sweets and I was pleasantly surprised. Tim Richardson has put one heck of a lot of research work into this book and made the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. J. E. Adams
a bit of an assortment
The big disappointment for me, after the initial sugar rush wore off, is that this book could have been so much better with a bit of proper editing. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Ms. Fiona Allen
History of Temptation
For anyone who though that sweets were a thing of the past and a bit childish this book will fill you in the fascinating history of sweets. How little things have changed! Read more
Published on 13 July 2009 by C. M. Beasley
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
