WHAT WE READ (Really)

Does Britain still love classic novels – Dickens, Tolstoy or Austen – or has so-called dumbing down triumphed?

John Simpson's favourite book is Tristram Shandy
An answer will be provided on March 1, on World Book Day, with the results of a poll to find the 10 books people say they "can't live without".
The online poll asks readers of all tastes to name their 10 favourite titles – fiction, non-fiction or even reference books. A final top 10 will be published to offer a picture of Britain's reading habits.
Celebrities and politicians who have allowed their choices to be announced early give a strong indication that the final selection will be high-brow.
The broadcaster John Simpson's first choice is Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, Sandra Howard, wife of the former Conservative leader, chooses Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, Joanna Trollope, creator of the "Aga saga", picks Tolstoy's War and Peace. The singer Katie Melua picks Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray as her number one, but also throws in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code in her list.
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By a country mile, the nation's favourite is Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Twice in surveys – for the BBC's Big Read in 2003 and for another by Waterstone's in 1997 – the Middle Earth saga came top.