Travel bible Lonely Planet has painted a grim picture of England in its latest edition describing the English a celebrity obsessed junk food addicts. It also slams the government for its spending cuts and says the country has a shaky economy. The new version of the guide is due out later in the month and should sell some 100,000 copies around the world.

David Else, the travelling companion’s co-ordinating author, said it was a shame that a nation responsible for the Bronte sisters, Charles Dickens and Shakespeare was now one that preferred to stock up on a slew of dubious autobiographies written by failed reality TV contestants and footballers.

The guide also hits out at the state of the country’s food claiming that many regions of England are still blighted by over-boiled vegetables, fatty meats and sliced white bread accompanied by cups of tea laced with several spoons of sugar.

Else points out that the English love nothing better than sitting in front of television shows about cooking, buying recipe books which are tied in to the programmes and then popping down to the local supermarket to fill their baskets with ready-made dinners. He claims that more junk food is consumed by people living in the UK than by all of the rest of Europe combined.

The port of Dover is described as sad, and Notting Hill as shabby. Carnaby Street is also attacked for now featuring a range of chain-stores. Else defended the Lonely Planet by saying that it was not meant to be truthful, not a tourist brochure.