I like sweets. I like them a lot. And that is why I set about writing this book, the first-ever world history of sweets. I wanted to find out more about my favourite things - and yes, I did want to eat a whole lot of sweets in the process. The world was my gobstopper...'

It is a truth universally acknowledged that everyone loves sweets. What can match the sinful pleasure of extending one's hand into a box of chocolates and withdrawing it to investigate which brightly wrapped gem you have picked? From comfits, dragees and lozenges to pastilles, sherbets and subtleties, from the Saracens and Aztecs to Victorian sweet magnates and the twenty-first century's hi-tech manufacturers, Tim Richardson, the world's first confectionery historian, has written a fascinating and hugely entertaining (not to say mouthwatering) history of mankind's love affair with all things sweet.

'Bursting with jolly anecdotes and compellingly useless information...a most enjoyable book'
Mail on Sunday

'Opens surprising doors on to history. Richardson has pulled countless plums out of his lucky dip of a subject...Good humour is here a leitmotif, and it has produced a good boo!
Guardian

'Pleasantly jokey but exhaustively researched...a delight of Turkish proportions' Daily Telegraph

'A truly delicious history, his homage to the humble sweet is a listed
Sunday Herald

'Full of delights...while the book gets its structure from serious
New York Times