When football manager Sir Alex Ferguson is not reading the riot act to his players, he is busy reading a book.

The Manchester United manager is one of several football stars who answered a plea from Worthing librarian Jackie Manners as she tried to interest young people in reading with the approach of the World Cup.

Sir Alex, BBC pundit Gary Lineker, Brighton manager Mark McGhee and former Charlton Athletic manager Alan Curbishley all replied to letters from Mrs Manners, who wrote asking them to reveal their favourite books.

Football-mad Mrs Manners, the West Sussex equal access librarian, decided the best way to grab youngsters' attention was to try asking some famous names to recommend their favourite books.

To her astonishment the replies came rolling in.

Some of the stars even revealed their childhood secrets in the new bookmark-sized leaflet called Football Fever.

Mrs Manners said: "I was really surprised to get so many replies. Who says footballers have never read a book? I did not know if they would have time to write back in the middle of the football season but I got my first response within three days."

In his letter, Sir Alex told Mrs Manners his favourite book at school was Treasure Island because he had been inspired by large ships in his native Glasgow.

Mr Lineker said he was still an avid reader who could not imagine his world without books. One of his football favourites was All Played Out by Peter Davies, a story of Italia 90.

Mr McGhee said his favourite book was The Lord of the Rings and Mr Curbishley said his was No Substitute by Keith Peacock. Portsmouth player Lomano Tresor LuaLua was a big fan of Oliver Twist and said the Dickens novel had helped him to learn English.

Mrs Manners' efforts were congratulated by Mike Coleman, deputy leader of West Sussex County Council, who is responsible for the library service.

He said: "Now we have the football fever book list in all our libraries along with similar posters. It is an excellent list of football titles aimed at eight to 14 year olds.

"The leaflet also has a voucher which means that when you borrow a book, a DVD, video or CD can be borrowed for free."