The more you study pub guides, the more you become aware of the existence of black holes. Forget radio telescopes, they're there for all to see on pub guide maps. There are some areas that simply never get covered in the selective guides. You might imagine that this is because no-one lives there, or it's a terrible, run-down area, but having lived in three such black holes, in three different counties, I know this isn't the case. Right now I live smack in the middle of a ten mile square that the guides won't touch, yet there are six (count them) decent pubs (some excellent) within 10 minutes walk, and plenty more a short car ride away. Attractive though a conspiracy theory may be, it does make you wonder if the later arrivals on the scene didn't use the older guides as a way to establish which pubs to check out.

Be guided

Pub guides have been around a good while now and have matured into very useful travelling companions. If you want a single volume, it has to be The Good Pub Guide, but I would be highly tempted to supplement it with one or two others: although there's plenty of overlap, each guide has some special gems of its own.