The Books That Inspire the People Who Govern Us; as Assembly Members Continue to Enjoy Their Long Summer Break, Senedd Correspondent David Williamson Asked Them about Their Favourite Holiday Reads - and Uncovered an Eclectic List Running from the Bible and James Joyce's Ulysses to Stephen King and Watership Down

Byline: David Williamson

ESTSELLERS, the Bible and political treatises are among the works which have shaped the minds of the men and women elected to the National Assembly for Wales.

A survey of AMs by the Western Mail reveals that a novel's power to grip the imagination ca do as much to shape a person's political opinions as any polemic.

Conservative Assembly leader Nick Bourne is inspired by Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird The novel has fascinated millions of readers with its indictment of racial injustice, and in Atticus Finch features one of the most heroic portrayals of a lawyer in world literature.

Mr Bourne, who studied law at Aberystwyth and Cambridge, also recommended that AMs read Barack Obama's memoir Dreams from My Father. Written long before today's Democratic presidential candidate had entere politics, it is an astonishingly candid account of a young black ma coming to terms with his identit in modern America.

When asked which works had had the greatest impact on how she viewed the world, Labour Health Minister Edwina Hart said: "The poetry that came out of World War One affected me more than anything else I read when I was younger."

She encourages politicians wanting to relax in the weeks before the new Assembly term begins to do so by reading Jane Austen. Her favourite of her books is Emma.

Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Mike German' life was change when he …

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: The Books That Inspire the People Who Govern Us; as Assembly Members Continue to Enjoy Their Long Summer Break, Senedd Correspondent David Williamson Asked Them about Their Favourite Holiday Reads - and Uncovered an Eclectic List Running from the Bible and James Joyce's Ulysses to Stephen King and Watership Down. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales). Publication date: August 28, 2008. Page number: 20. © 2009 MGN Ltd. COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale Group.

This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.