Usually, it has come from a magazine Q&A, a charity wheeze or the last minute or two of Desert Island Discs (“apart from the Bible and Shakespeare”). This information is never established under oath. But was Ted Heath really so taken by an illuminating study of impressionism, or Blair by Scott’s medieval romp, or his rival and successor by a sweet story for the under-fives?
![nicola tranter nicola tranter](http://cordite.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/jtranter.jpg)
All too easily we can imagine her enthralled by the plot to assassinate a French president and returning to the novel again and again in the hope of a different ending. But can these really be their favourite books? Thatcher’s choosing Freddy Forsyth has the ring of reality. The variety is astonishing and we should rejoice that our leaders aren’t slaves to literary fashion. The answer is that all have been named by British prime ministers as their favourite books – by Blair, Edward Heath, Churchill, Thatcher and Gordon Brown respectively. T o borrow a turn of phrase from this newspaper’s Saturday quiz, what links the following? Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott The Art of Impressionism: Painting Technique and the Making of Modernity by Anthea Callen Seven Pillars of Wisdom by TE Lawrence The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.