MPs' list "in touch" with public

Dan Brown's book beat ex-Tory leader William Hague's biography of William Pitt the Younger into second spot, with the latest Harry Potter in third.

CommunicateResearch's survey was based on responses from 153 MPs.

Mr Hague's book was the most popular read for peers, ahead of biographies of Chairman Mao and Churchill and Bill Clinton's autobiography.

TOP 10 READS FOR MPs The Da Vinci Code Pitt, by William Hague The latest Harry Potter Mao, by Jung Chang Birds without Wings, Louis de Bernieres My Life, Bill Clinton Niall Ferguson on the empire Niall Ferguson on US empire Angels and Demons, Dan Brown Small Island, Andrea Levy Source: Communicateresearch

The survey also found that 48% of MPs believed they would have time to finish their chosen reading.

Among the responses from Labour MPs was one saying their holiday reading would be "prob bios of Gordon Brown".

Among Conservative MPs, one said their holiday reading would be "submissions on BBC Charter Review", while another was John Sergeant's book Maggie: Her Fatal Legacy.

Liberal Democrats all chose different reading - ranging from "policy books I'm afraid" to "various astronomy titles on planetary evolution".

Among other MPs' reading is "4 or 5 Welsh language books", "The Bible" and "NHS and Devolution by the LSE".

The Da Vinci Code, derided by critics and the subject of furious religious debate, has sold 17 million copies.

Stephanie Merritt, a novelist and deputy literary editor at the Observer, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme she believed that the MPs' list had been invented to make them sound more "in touch" and to avoid looking "clever or poncy".