Roy Hodgson's love of literature

It has emerged that new England manager Roy Hodgson has a love of literature, with the 64-year-old recently admitting a preference for John Updike and Philip Roth.

A BBC profile of the Croydon-born footballer-turned-manager, who was announced as the successor to Fabio Capello yesterday, has revealed that he enjoys reading John Updike, Philip Roth and Saul Bellow.

"It [reading] always has been an escape route," Hodgson told the broadcaster. "It's always been a way to focus and concentrate my mind and stop grumbling over minor things.

"The world of football, it takes up all of our time, but it's still a relatively minor subject in terms of world importance."

Proving an interest across the arts, Hodgson compared his career to the work of Russian expressionist artist Wassily Kandinsky, saying :"It has gone sideways, backwards, and then upwards again."

The previous favourite for the role, Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp, has previously been quoted as admitting his illiteracy: "I have a big problem, I can’t write, so I don’t keep anything. I’m the most disorganised person, I’m ashamed to say, in the world."

Footballers and literature have rarely gone hand in hand, although notoriously violent Queens Park Ranger midfielder Joey Barton is known for quoting Kipling, Virgil and Nietzsche in his tweets.

Barton chose Dracula as his favourite book for adults as part of the Premier League Reading Stars programme earlier this year, while Spurs player Niko Kranjcar picked To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Arsenal forward Theo Walcott chose Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J K Rowling as his adult title. His favourite children's book was TJ and the Hat-trick - written by one Theo Walcott.