DORSET stands for England at its sparkling best according to a major travel guide out today.

Praise was heaped on the county in the new Lonely Planet publication on Devon, Cornwall and South West England.

Lonely Planet's tough-talking respected style warned that most villages in the country 'have had their hearts sucked out as the holiday lets and second homes have moved in'.

But the guide held Dorset up as a shining example of everything England should be. It said that the county was 'actually the essence of England - a lush, rippling chessboard of fields sprinkled with ancient villages and fringed by a silver sea'.

The county had retained its charm at a time when many areas were shaking off their 'country bumpkin' image, said the guide.

Lonely Planet said the region had 'kissed goodbye to its corn-chewing, tractor driving stereotype and been reborn as a tonic for the heart'.

It added: "When a narrow sliver of land in South Dorset can command higher property prices than a penthouse apartment in downtown Manhattan, you know something has got to give."

The guide recognised that the area had always had a 'love-hate relationship' with the summer influx of tourists known as 'grockles' - but Lonely Planet also argued that Dorset and the rest of the region was 'no longer just a destination for caravans, the blue-rinse brigade, beach bums or long queues on the M4'.

It added that once dismissed by snooty urbanites as a cultural backwater, the region was now reinventing itself as an eco-haven, a creative trend-setter, a culinary paradise and an outdoor playground.

Weymouth and Portland tourism and leisure spokesman Councillor Kate Wheller said: "It is great to see that an international publication has picked up on what a wonderful place Dorset is. We have known it for a long while and it is nice that a lot more people will now know about Dorset."

Bournemouth also gets a mention in the guide which said: "This former preserve of the blue-rinse brigade is now a hedonistic paradise or stag-and-hen party hell. Whatever your view, it certainly makes a statement."