Eclectic reading for MPs this summer
The Da Vinci Code and the latest Harry Potter novel are among the must read books for politicians this summer, a new poll has found.
The CommunicateResearch poll found MPs keen to take a mixture of light and heavy reading on their holidays with Dan Brown’s best seller, which has sold three million copies in Britain, and the biography of William Pitt the Younger by former Tory leader William Hague in first and second place respectively.
J K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was third on the list.
Louis de Bernieres’ Birds Without Wings, a love story set in Turkey, was also popular.
Among peers Hague’s Pitt was number one, followed by biographies of Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-Tung (Jung Chang and Jon Halliday) and Winston Churchill (Roy Jenkins) and an autobiography by Bill Clinton.
Biographies of Tony Blair (John Rentoul) and former leader Margaret Thatcher (John Sergeant) were also on the to-read list.
Pollsters asked 153 politicians in the Commons and 100 in the Lords for the contents of the summer reading list.
A fifth of MPs said it was unlikely they would have time to read for fun. Four out of ten said they would definitely not find time.
MPs and peers are away from Westminster for 11 weeks.
Separately, US president George Bush has packed three heavy books for his five-week stay at his Texas ranch, covering the histories of salt, influenza and the life of Alexander II.
