The Chocolate Factory

The English chocolate factory, Cadbury, opened its first overseas factory at Claremont, near Hobart. The factory was built on a 246 acre property on a peninsula where there was cheap hydroelectricity. The new factory was officially opened in October 1921. Sixteen women from the Cadbury factory at Bournville came to Australia to help train Australian women in the processes for making chocolate. Several years earlier the Cadbury factory had formed partnerships with Fry's and Pascals confectionery companies in the UK. The name of the firm was now Cadbury-Fry-Pascal.

Mary-Lou Stephens has written a historical fiction novel, The chocolate factory, about the early years of the establishment of the factory at Claremont. In the novel Dorothy Adwell, a war widow, travels to Tasmania from England to be a foreman in the new factory with the responsibility of ensuring that the enrober machines worked efficiently. Eventually staff will be housed in a village constructed on the Cadbury site, but initially Dorothy stays in a boarding house with other women from England who also work in the factory.

On the voyage to Australia Dot meets Thomas, a returned serviceman who is struggling with PTSD. Dot is aware of the condition as her husband, Freddie, also struggled with PTSD before he died. Dot recognises Thomas' symptoms and endeavours to help him.

Maisie Greenwood is the eldest daughter of a war widow who tries to support the family by taking in mending and ironing. She lives in Hobart, a half hour train ride from Claremont. When Maisie starts working at the Cadbury factory she hopes to be able to earn enough money to support her mother and keep her sister, Lily, at school.

The novel follows the lives of the women as they adjust to their new roles at the Cadbury factory. However it is soon apparent that there are attempts to sabotage the success of the new enterprise.

The author covers many historical themes in this novel including the workings of the chocolate factory, the philosophy of the factory owners who are Quakers, the effects of war on ex-servicemen as well as on war-widows and their families, working conditions for women in the 1920s, as well as themes of friendship, trust, industrial espionage. It is an interesting book to read, especially when dealing with the lives of the women working at the new factory however I felt that the author was attempting to include too many themes in the book which, although interesting, sometimes meandered from the main story and distracted from the flow of the main story. I did finish reading the novel but at one stage I was tempted to look for something else to read.