Pubs Are In Fashion

MORE and more visitors to Britain are discovering that one of the country’s big attractions for anyone who enjoys the combination of good food and drink with friendly and informal surroundings, is the typical British tavern —or pub, to use the colloquial abbreviation for “public house”. A great many pubs have been providing refreshment for travellers since the days of stage-coaches; and today, often with centuries of experience behind them, they offer the same ready hospitality, in the same traditional atmosphere, to the modern tourist. , r But the modern tourist, especially if he comes from abroad, may sometimes find it difficult to pick out the best pubs from the hundreds that he may pass in the course of a single day. Fortunately, the pickmg-out has already been done for him by Egon Ronay, whose guides both to hotels and restaurants and to pubs have won him the gratitude of countless travellers m recent years. , , , This year, however, Mr. Ronay’s pub guide has taken a different form. It is no longer just a guide to good pubs. It has become Egon Ronay’s Pubs and Tourist Sights in Britain 1972 —something unique in the field of travel books. Published by the British Tourist Authority and the Egon Ronay Organisation, in as sociation (in the United Kingdom) with the Hutchinson Publishing Group, it is available now from booksellers in Britain (£1.50) and abroad—or by post from the British Tourist Authority, 64 St. James’s Street, London SWI INF, at £1.75 including postage and packing.

What makes this book so different from previous guides is the way in which it emphasises the direct link between pubs and touring. The majority of its 600 pages

are devoted to a series of 33 five-day tours covering all parts of the country, in the course of which at least part of every county in Great Britain has its share of the limelight. The lay-out of these tours is a model of clarity. Running down one page is the description of the route and the places of interest to see on the way, while the facing page gives details of recommended pubs to look out for in that section of the tour.

Well over 100 pages are given to London (pubs with good restaurants, pubs with entertainment, historical pubs, riverside pubs and other useful categories) and there are 11 tours of London and its environs set out in the same way as the countryside tours. Another part of the book features a selection of famous country houses, with details of nearby pubs; and a very useful section recommends good pubs for long-distance travel lers on the main highways.

A game of shove ha'penny in the friendly atmosphere of the parlour of the 14th century New Inn at Pembridge in Here fordshire. Its black and white half timbering, its cider and Welsh lamb are characteristics typical of the west Midland counties bordering Wales.