25 APRIL 1952, Page 18

Guides to Britain

SIR,—Your correspondent, Mr. Cohan, is right. There was a Michelin guide of Britain issued before the war, and I wish that it could be reissued like the excellent Michelin maps of Britain. But, unlike the Michelin guide of France, to which Janus referred, and which is the gastronomic Bible of all French travellers, the Michelin guide of Britain had no classification of restaurants and hotels. These have no stars for outstanding cuisine in the British guide—although certainly they could have been awarded in many cases.

The A.A. and R.A.C. hotel lists concentrate mainly on accommoda- tion. We need a hotel and restaurant guide to Britain on Michelin lines, and Mr. Raymond Mortimer's Good Food Guide 1951-52 is a step in this right direction.

It is a sad reflection on the British that their hotel guide-books con- centrate on appointments and bedrooms, whilst the French classify their hotels mainly according to the food they serve. Perhaps a nation

gets the guide-books it deserves !—Yours, &c., G. E. DANIEL United University Club, 1 Suffolk Street, S.W.1.