A regional daily has hit back at a national newspaper’s restaurant critic by creating a ‘wanted’ poster – after he described the county as ‘the hernia on the end of England’.

The Eastern Daily Press has rallied the people of Norfolk in fighting back against the controversial views of AA Gill, who wrote a review of the Rose and Crown at Snettisham in the Sunday Times.

It has created the poster, pictured left, saying he is ‘wanted for crimes against Norfolk’ and offering a reward of two Norfolk Show tickets after much of his review was spent criticising the county.

Reporter David Blackmore also spoke to diners at the restaurant so they could respond to Mr Gill’s views for a video on the paper’s website.

Among the comments made by the critic were that “If Norfolk didn’t exist, we would have to make it up, and then regret it”, the county was a “backward place to allocate dark lusts, incest and idiocy” and it was “a poverty-bitten place, keeping up its stained trousers with baler twine”.

Senior content editor David Powles said: “AA Gill’s comments about Norfolk were completely wide of the mark and have upset an awful lot of people who know only too well how great a place Norfolk is to either live in or visit.

“In fact his comments were so wide of the mark, and so obviously designed to cause upset, we had to strike a balance between our desire not to grant him the type of publicity he was after, but on the other hand to give people the chance for a right to reply.

“The story had received a great deal of interest online, so it was felt there was no better way to redress the balance than send our reporter, camera in hand, to the restaurant in question and let the people of Norfolk have their say.”

Mr Gill has a track record of upsetting people with his comments, previously offending the residents of Wales, the Isle of Man and TV presenter Clare Balding.

Writing about the controversial review, EDP columnist Steve Downes said: “Normally I let it go, safe in the knowledge that those who do not recognise Norfolk for the beautiful, inspiring place that it is are not worth developing an ulcer over.

“When defenders of the Norfolk faith attacked Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge for mocking the county, I wished they would develop a sense of humour.

“And when Jeremy Clarkson made detrimental comments about Nelson’s County, it was obvious that it was simply our turn, and not worth getting uptight about.

“But Mr Gill’s comments go beyond the acceptable bounds of humour.

“I’m not ever going to be a ‘name’ in the world of journalism. But I do know that resorting to gratuitous abuse of a subject is lazy and unimaginative.”

AA Gill was unavailable for comment.