Greedy Brits too 'self absorbed' says Bryson

Speaking to more than 1,000 readers in the 20-a-ticket Barclays Wealth Pavilion at the Hay Festival of Literature in Wales, the American writer said the Britain he discovered as a youthful backpacker in the 1970s was in some ways richer than today.

Questioned on stage he described a "poor and economically struggling" 1970s Britain, saying:

"People's lives were actually still quite simple compared with today but it seemed like a really enriched country.

"We act all the time now like we are really poor when people are really rich. America is about individual wealth and collective poverty and we have moved into that camp."

He added: "One thing that is different, and has changed here, is the self-absorption, not just greed. Everybody is in a hurry and there is a 'the rules don't apply to me' sort of thing.

"When I first came to Britain it really was all about fair play and queuing."

He said while people talk today about the need for affordable housing, in the 1970s it existed in the form of council houses.

Despite his downbeat assessment he had only praise for the country's political leaders.

Asked what he thought of the televised leaders' debates during the run up to the general election, he was upbeat about all three candidates.

"In America, you get one good candidate, one idiot and one who is generally terrifying. In the debates here I think all three of them would do."

Asked what he missed most about the US, he said that while he respected cricket, nothing could replace baseball.

"It is really easy to be an American abroad because everything good about America is sent around the world and if it's bad it isn't."