A new travel guide to England has described a country where "overweight, alcopop-swilling, sex and celebrity-obsessed TV addicts" live alongside "animal-loving, tea-drinking, charity donors thriving on irony and Radio 4".

The comparison may be extreme but the new Rough Guide to England says it is the variety of people, cultures and landscapes which makes the country so fascinating.

England "isn't just one place, but a perpetual collision of culture, class and race," it remarks.

The guide praises the country as "a genuine haven for refugees", but comments that despite its rich multi-ethnic culture, England is "a deeply conservative place".

It describes an "unparalleled range of historic buildings, monuments and landscapes", but public transport comes in for criticism as do town centres which the guide says are all beginning to look the same.

"Yet it's also a country where individuality and creativity flourish, fuelling a thriving pop culture and producing one of the most dynamic fashion, music and arts scenes to be found anywhere," it says.

The guide suggests visitors ask people in England about the national identity to hear an "entertaining range of views".

"The only certainty is that however long you spend in England and however much you see, it still won't be enough to understand the place," it concludes.