Bryson believes that pubs are at the heart of British national identity and he worries that 24-hour drinking laws, due to come into force in November, could put even more pressure on breweries to modernise old-fashioned drinking establishments and cash in on high-volume turnover.

Most overseas tourists visiting Britain want to visit a traditional pub, he says, but it is getting more difficult to find one. “ I find it disappointing,” he said. “Pubs are an important part of what makes Britain Britain.

“There are few traditional pubs in city centres any more. Now there are these giant sheds which have no appeal to me whatsoever. When I lived in the Yorkshire Dales, the local was like the village living room; it performed a vital social function. Now I live in Norfolk and there’s no local, which is sad.”

Bryson, who has written the foreword to a new book on the best traditional pubs in the UK called Licensed to Sell, produced by English Heritage in association with the Campaign for Real Ale, is so concerned about the fate of old-fashioned drinking holes that he would not name his favourite in London for fear that developers might discover it.

“There’s a pub in London that I really adore, but I won’t say what it is. It’s divided into a lounge and a public bar and it’s small and obscure. Hardly anyone goes there. I’m bracing myself against the thought that someone will soon take it over and rip it up. Although in a way I can understand people doing that, if it means they end up making more money. I suppose if I was a publican wanting to make a living, then I would probably do the same. That ’s just the way the world is going, I suppose. It’s a case of: what can anyone do about it?”

Licensed to Sell found that only 200 of the UK’s 60,000 pubs had an interior of “historical value”. It lists many of these and chronicles how pubs have changed over the years.

Andrew Davison, one of the co-authors, said: “Pubs are integral to Britain. In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales the pilgrims stopped in a series of inns. Dickens endlessly wrote about them. They are so often at the heart of the community. Even people who don’t go recognise this. John Major had it right with all his ‘warm beer and cricket grounds’ stuff.”

For Bryson, the decline of the traditional British pub began in earnest in the late 1960s and the 1970s. “That was when pubs were really raped by the big breweries. Out went the small brewery ales and in came the likes of Watney’s Red Barrel and Double Diamond — the same beers everywhere and Formica tables replacing the old fittings. Bitter was at its lowest ebb then, it was impossible to get a good pint. At least things are a bit better now.”

Details: Licensed to Sell (English Heritage, £14.99).

IN YOUR DREAMS

WRITERS have lamented the state of the British pub for years. In 1946, George Orwell wrote an essay for the Evening Standard on his favourite pub, The Moon Under Water.

He wrote: “The cast-iron fireplaces, the florid ceiling stained dark yellow by tobacco smoke, the stuffed bull’s head over the mantelpiece — everything has the solid comfortable ugliness of the 19th century.

“In winter there is a good fire burning in at least two of the bars, and the Victorian layout of the place gives one plenty of elbow-room. Upstairs, at least six days a week, you can get a good solid lunch. There are no glass-topped tables, or other modern miseries . . . no sham roof-beams, inglenooks or plastic panels masquerading as oak.”

He also said that it had no music, had a garden and was within two minutes of the nearest bus stop. The staff knew the regulars and served pints in “proper” mugs with handles.

Orwell ended the essay by letting his readers down: no such pub existed. He had made it all up.

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