Deborah Cadbury

Deborah is a bestselling author and historian known for her dramatic true stories that bring history alive.

Drawing on a broad canvas from the French Revolution to the Second World War, at the heart of each of her books are human stories. Her narratives feature characters caught in momentous events in history, seeing the turning points that have made our modern world through their eyes.

‘Cadbury’s forte is a journalistic style of on-the-spot reporting which grips you from page one and hurtles you through the text’ The Times Educational Supplement

After graduating from Sussex and Oxford Universities, Deborah joined the BBC in 1978 as a trainee. For many years she worked as a BBC producer and exec, travelling the world for her investigative documentaries. She has multiple awards including an Emmy

Find out more about Deborah’s television career.

True Stories, Pure Drama

Deborah’s debut book in 1997 was The Feminisation of Nature, following her Emmy winning film, Assault on the Male.

In 2000 she published The Dinosaur Hunters, described by the Sunday Times as ‘a story we should all know. A defining part of contemporary western culture’.

Deborah’s work at the BBC shaping gripping narratives from complex true stories helped to hone her writing.

‘Cadbury’s own background as a historian and TV documentary maker means that [she] communicates in an episodic and visual style making the subject gripping…’ Financial Times 

She went on to pen many highly acclaimed historical narratives including Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, Space Race, Princes at War, Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking and The Lost King of France.

‘If you are tired of dry history books and dream of the past come alive, then The Lost King of France is a spectacular book for you’ The Washington Times

Following the financial crash of 2008, Deborah delved into her family history for her book, Chocolate Wars. She uncovered a remarkable family saga as she traced the story of Cadbury from its early 19th century origins in a tea and chocolate shop in Birmingham to the showdown with the American giant, Kraft.

Deborah coined the term ‘Quaker capitalism’ and she has been invited to talk about this business legacy at INSEAD Business School, Birmingham, Aston and Fordham universities and others. She is working with Fable Pictures on a TV drama series of the early chocolatiers.

‘An impressively thought-provoking parable for our times… The Daily Telegraph on Chocolate Wars.

Deborah’s most recent book, The School That Escaped the Nazis, tells the true story of Anna Essinger, the only head teacher to smuggle her entire school  out of Nazi Germany before the war – right under the nose of the Gestapo.  During Covid lock downs, Deborah traced former pupils from around the world and their heart-rending stories provide a unique child’s eye view of the Nazi years of persecution and the holocaust.

‘A story for our times’ says author, Damien Lewis. ‘I was deeply moved and no doubt will return to it again and again’.

Awards

Deborah Cadbury was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Literature) by the University of Birmingham. Her book The Dinosaur Hunters won the Dingle Prize from the British Society for the Advancement of Science and The Lost King of France,  was long listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize (now the Baillie-Gifford Prize)  Nominations for Deborah’s drama documentaries include: Bafta, Broadcast, Royal Television Society & Grierson and her documentaries have won many international awards including an Emmy.

Deborah is a member of the Biography Society and the Society of Authors.

She has two sons and lives in London.