According to a poll conducted by BBC, George Orwell's 1984 and Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace are among the books people are most likely to have lied about reading. Four in 10 respondents (42%) pretending to have read it Orwell's nove, while a third (31%) said they had lied about reading War and Peace.

Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children came in at seventh place, with 14% admitting to lying about having read it.

A total of 1,342 people took part in the online survey in January and February this year. The survey released to mark World Book Day. Visitors to the World Book Day website were given a list of 10 books and asked which they had lied about reading.