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Leading Tory, Labour and SNP figures appear to be united in their literary tastes with Manchester United's football manager Sir Alex Ferguson.Asked to nominate their favourite books, William Hague, Lord Mandelson and Nicola Sturgeon all chose a biography of Abraham Lincoln.
The book, Team of Rivals, focuses on the need for cross-party co-operation in government.
It was praised last year by Sir Alex as "a brilliant book".
Talking to Labour's former press chief Alastair Campbell in a New Statesman interview, the football manager showered the book, written by Doris Kearns Goodwin, with praise.
"I read it on holiday and even though it was so long, I couldn't get enough of it," he said.
"Now, he was president of the United States in a totally different era. I am a manager of a football team.
"But I can learn about the art of team building and team management from all sorts of places. It's all about managing people and relationships, in the end."
With pundits predicting a close election, and a potential hung parliament maybe Lord Mandelson and Mr Hague have been looking for tips.
Mr Hague described Team Of Rivals as "a rare study not only of four great civil war figures in the same book, but of the extraordinary and productive way they managed to work together".
Lord Mandelson described the book as "an elegant account of the mastery of Abraham Lincoln and the difference politics can make".
Corfu guide
A group of leading politicians was asked to nominate their top 12 books by the retailer Waterstone's.
Lord Mandelson included a guide to Corfu, the Greek island where he famously dined with a Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska while EU Trade Commissioner in 2007.
He described the island as his "home away from home".
Another of his choices was the CS Lewis children's classic The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
Mr Hague nominated the memoirs of long-serving Labour MP Chris Mullin and the first world war novel Birdsong, by Sebastian Faulkes, a choice he shared with Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman Vince Cable.This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.