For most of us, the summer holiday is a perfect opportunity to read a gentle novel, the 18th volume of Alastair Campbell's diaries or the latest Doctor Who Magazine. Not if you're Ed Miliband.

The Labour leader was recently photographed carrying a stack of books with titles to chasten the average holidaymaker: Prosperity Without Growth by Tim Jackson, Fault Lines by Raghuram G Rajan and The Last Campaign by Thurston Clarke, on Bobby Kennedy's failed run for the US presidency in 1968. Also spotted in the pile was a bleakly named management tome: Heifetz and Linsky's Leadership on the Line - Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading.

Surely it's not that bad, Ed?