The Sherlock Holmes mysteries, The Lord of the Rings, and a biography of Leon Trotsky are among the books that British Prime Minister Tony Blair has most enjoyed.

Mr Blair revealed his favourite reading matter while speaking to 200 children at the Globe Theatre in London, at an event to mark World Book Day on Thursday.

His own childhood favourites had included CS Lewis's Narnia books and Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped, as well as JRR Tolkein's Lord of the Rings.

As a student, Mr Blair said he had been particularly interested by Isaac Deutscher's biography of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky.

These days the prime minister counts Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle among his favourite writers of fiction, and recently reread the Sherlock Holmes stories.

At the moment he is reading Norman Davies's History of Europe.