Hundreds of people have slammed a British tourist board for producing a list of literary heroes but did not feature Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on its map.

VisitBritain published the interactive map, entitled 'England's Map of Literary Heroes', on Tuesday, but has received a torrent of angry criticism of its decision to omit all but one of Britain's countries.

The tourist board has since apologised and told The Herald the map, which was originally made for VisitEngland, was tweeted from VisitBritain's consumer channel 'in error', despite it also being featured on the front page of their website.

The map is described as depicting areas in which authors drew inspiration from, rather than where each individual was born.

It features authors including William Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Agatha Christie, all accompanied by detailed illustrations of their work and situated where they drew inspiration from.

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Scotland and Wales are decorated with an assortment of trees, bushes and puffins.

The Herald: Credit: VisitBritainCredit: VisitBritain

A now-deleted post by the tourist board on Twitter attracted more than 500 comments from people wondering when their own countries are going to be recognised as part of their '#LoveGreatBritain' hashtag.

One wrote: "Why are the Welsh and Irish authors in England? Why is there nothing in Wales? We're told we're part of Britain constantly but then constantly left out of stuff. it's almost as if this is to promote England."

Another said: "This map only covers England. Think you might need to rebrand as 'Visit England'."

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Others tweeted hoping the tourist board would release similar versions of the map, but focused on Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

A spokeswoman for VisitBritain said: “The VisitEngland literary heroes map was tweeted from VisitBritain’s consumer channel in error and the tweet has since been removed.  

"VisitBritain sincerely apologises for this mistake.

"VisitEngland’s literary heroes map of English literary locations was created to inspire domestic visitors to explore the destinations and literary attractions across the country brought to life through books."

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