Boris Johnson top of MPs' summer reading lists

A book by the UK's new foreign secretary Boris Johnson has topped the list of books MPs will be reading this summer.

Johnson, who was made foreign secretary in Theresa May's new government last week, topped the list with his biography of Winston Churchill, The Churchill Factor (Hodder). The poll, undertaken by Blackwell's, was dominated by titles about World War II and American politics.

The news comes after Johnson backed out of a book deal with Hodder & Stoughton to write a biography of William Shakespeare.

World War II titles including Joshua Levine’s The Secret History of The Blitz (Simon & Schuster), Roger Hermiston’s All Behind You, Winston: Churchill's Great Coalition 1940-45 (Aurum Press), John Bew’s Citizen Clem (riverrun) and Martin Gilbert’s Holocaust (HarperCollins) were also on MPs summer reading lists, along with Nicholas Stargardt’s The German War: A Nation Under Arms (Bodley Head) and East West Street by Philippe Sands (W&N), which explores the origins of international law, by focusing on the Nuremberg Trials, the city of Lviv and a secret family history, and Michael Smith’s Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews (Hodder), the story of Berlin Passport Control Officer Frank Foley who helped thousands of Jews to flee Nazi Germany with visas and false passports.

With the US Presidential election coming up on the horizon, American politics also features highly on the MPs’ selections, with titles including David C Whitney’s The American Presidents (Madison Park); Mark Lander’s Alter Egos: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the Twilight Struggle over American Power (Random House); Robert Caro’s The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the fall of New York (Bodley Head) and Henry Kissinger’s own memoir The White House Years (Simon & Schuster).

Members, though, will still be making time to enjoy both contemporary and classic fiction this summer, according to Blackwell's survey of politicians. A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler (Vintage), The Night Manager by John Le Carre (Sceptre), The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins), Neil Mackay's The Wolf Trial (Freight Books) and I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes (Corgi) were all mentioned, alongside poetry collections such as Kim Moore's The Art of Falling (Corgi) and Caroline Smith’s The Immigration Handbook (Seren) as well as David Walliams' children's adventure Grandpa's Great Escape (HarperCollins Children’s).

Gareth Hardy, head of commercial at Blackwell’s, said: "It’s really interesting to see what MPs will be taking away with them on their summer break. The spread of titles highlights a wide area of interests, though clearly politics and history continue to dominate the leisure time reading of many."