The British passion for chocolate is centuries old and shows no signs of abating. Paul Chrystal here tells the story of chocolate in Britain, from its arrival in the late sixteen hundreds, through the glory days of such brands as Cadbury's, Fry's and Rowntree's in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to the way companies have weathered the storms of foreign competition and takeovers in more recent years. The book is colourfully illustrated with images of chocolate factories and their products, photographs of chocolate boxes and wrappers, and, of course, the advertisements that made household names of so many manufacturers.

Paul Chrystal followed university training in classics with a career in publishing, before becoming the owner of the Knaresborough bookshop in North Yorkshire. He is the author of several books on Classics and local history.

Joe Dickinson spent most of his life working for Rowntrees of York, one of Britain's great confectionery makers. He is the owner and curator of a vast archive of material relating to Rowntrees, and the author of a pictorial history of York.