MPs Summer Reading List 2013

Methodology: ComRes surveyed a representative sample of 157 MPs online and by postal questionnaire between 26 June and 24 July 2013.  ComRes is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.

Date Published: 18 Aug 2013

Categories: Policy Makers | Social | UK

Description

  What is your MP reading on the beach this summer?

 

With the Summer Recess in full swing, ComRes today publishes its annual list of the books MPs are reading on the beach this year.

 

Last year two books dominated the list – Robert Caro’s epic biography of Lyndon Johnson was the top read among MPs overall, while perhaps surprisingly topping the list for Conservative MPs was E.L. James’s “spankfest” 50 Shades of Grey.

 

In 2013 MPs split along clear party lines, with the Number One book for Conservatives being Charles Moore’s biography of Margaret Thatcher.  In second place is colleague Jesse Norman’s biography of Edmund Burke and in third is another colleague’s book, Bill Cash’s biography John Bright.

 

Their Labour counterparts have taken to the beach with Alan Johnson’s moving account of his childhood This Boy and in second place is Labour Peer Andrew Adonis’s book Five Days in May. 

 

Liberal Democrat MPs expressed no clear choice but a nose ahead of the rest was environmentalist Tony Juniper’s book What has nature ever done for us? Perhaps as a Coalition party involved in the struggle to balance the Government’s figures they are attracted to the book’s subtitle - “How money really grows on trees”.

 

Other notable titles which didn’t make it into the top lists include:

• House of Cards Trilogy (Michael Dobbs) – “For research purposes as I'm thinking of writing my own novel”

• New Statesman back copies – “'Haven't had enough time to read them for a few months”

• “'I intend to read a collection of Roald Dahl's novels with my son”

• The Burning Question (Mike Berners-Lee and Duncan Clarke) – “I need to understand the climate change debate better”

• The Summons  (John Grisham) – “escapism”

MPs’ Summer Reading Lists

All MPs

2013	2012
1. Margaret Thatcher - Charles Moore	1. The Years of Lyndon Johnson - Robert Caro
2. This Boy  - Alan Johnson	2. 50 Shades of Grey - E.L. James
3. Five Days in May - Andrew Adonis	3. The Geek Manifesto - Mark Henderson
4. Edmund Burke - Jesse Norman	4. The Burden of Power - Alistair Campbell
5. Modernity Britain: Opening the Box - David Kynaston	5. Spicer Quality - Lord Spicer / Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel

Conservative MPs

2013	2012
1. Margaret Thatcher - Charles Moore	1. 50 Shades of Grey – E.L. James
2. Edmund Burke  - Jesse Norman	2. The Years of Lyndon Johnson – Robert Caro
3. Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn / Defeat into Victory – Sir William Slim / John Bright  - Bill Cash	3. The Geek Manifesto - Mark Henderson

Labour MPs

2013	2012
1. This Boy - Alan Johnson	1. The Years of Lyndon Johnson – Robert Caro
2. Five Days in May - Andrew Adonis	2. Burden of Power - Alistair Campbell
3. Modernity Britain, Opening the Box -David Kynaston	3. Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel

Liberal Democrat MPs

2013	2012
1. What Has Nature Ever Done For Us - Tony Juniper	1. Going South – Larry Elliot / Dan Atkinson