Dev Patel helped Slumdog Millionaire's book sales

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BOLLYWOOD story Slumdog Millionaire has been picked as the holiday read of the summer by airport travellers.

The tale of a young boy’s rise from the Indian slums to national fame by Vikas Swarup is likely to be filling the most suitcases, says a new report.

The list of the nation’s top holiday reads has been compiled by Heathrow Airport and is dominated by big screen adaptations.

Three of the top five most popular books were recently made into big screen blockbusters, including Slumdog which swept the board at the Oscars with eight awards and which stars Londoner Dev Patel.

But for some people even a holiday is not enough to get their minds off the economic crisis and 11 per cent voted BBC journalist Robert Peston's financial analysis of Britain, Who Runs Britain?, into second place .

However Swarup's tale of how an 18-year-old boy from the slums manages to win 20 million rupees on a television game show was named the top holiday read by 14 per cent of travellers.

Also in the top ten were the book of the Kate Winslet film The Reader which follows a character named Michael Berg and charts his relationship with an older woman named Hanna in the context of the Holocaust.

The White Tiger from Aravind Adiga, which won the 2008 Man Booker Prize and charts the story of Balram Halwai, an overweight ex-teashop worker who now earns his living as a chauffeur, also made it into the list.

Nick Adderley, Heathrow Airport marketing and insight director, said: “There is a distinct Hollywood feel to this year's top fictional reads and the fact that 14 per cent of all holidaymakers will be packing a copy of Slumdog Millionaire in their suitcases shows just how much a movie's box-office success can push a book up the literary league table.

“In the non-fiction stakes it looks like there will be little escape from the economic woes with one in ten travellers voting Robert Peston's analysis of the state of Britain their top holiday read.”

The full list is:

1. Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup

2. Who Runs Britain by Robert Peston

3. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

4. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

5. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

6. The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner

7. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

8. The Last Godfathers by John Follain

9. The Economic Naturalist by Robert H. Frank

10. Body Language by James Borg