Brown, God and Harry Potter top MPs summer reading list » Central Government » 24dash.com

A survey of MPs' summer reading habits has revealed that the Tories are swotting up on Gordon Brown - while Labour politicians are questioning the existence of God.

A biography of the new Prime Minister by Tom Bower is among the most popular book choices in the Conservative ranks.

Top choice for Labour politicians is The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, with Alastair Campbell's The Blair Years also proving a must-read.

The Lib Dems prefer to curl up with the latest Harry Potter.

Waterstone's asked 180 MPs what they planned to read during their summer break.

Former Tory leader William Hague will be flattered to learn that his biography of anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce is the most popular all-party choice.

And the most popular author proved to be ex-Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown, with three titles selected (The Ashdown Diaries, Contemporary Conflict Resolution and Swords and Ploughshares: Building Peace in the 21st Century).

Other choices include ics (Don Quixote, Pride and Prejudice, Vanity Fair), the environment (Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth) and Islam (The Islamist by Ed Husain and The War of Ideas: Jihadism Against Democracy by Walid Phares).

Labour Top Reads:

1 The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

2 William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner - William Hague

3 The Blair Years - Alastair Campbell

Conservative Top Reads:

1 William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner - William Hague

2 Sir Robert Peel: A Biography - Douglas Hurd

3 Gordon Brown - Tom Bower

Liberal Democrats Top Reads:

1 William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner - William Hague

2 The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

3 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling

Top House of Commons Reads:

1 William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner - William Hague

2 The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

3 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling

4 Gordon Brown - Tom Bower

5 The Blair Years - Alastair Campbell

6 Michael Foot: A Life - Kenneth O Morgan

7 Sir Robert Peel: A Biography - Douglas Hurd

8 The War of Ideas: Jihadism Against Democracy - Walid Phares

9 Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - Paul Torday

10 Restless - William Boyd

Copyright Press Association 2007.

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