Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on finding focus and reflection through books in this digital age

Who: Leo Varadkar, 47, served as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland from 2017 to 2020, and again from 2022 to 2024. The Dublin-born son of an Indian father and Irish mother studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin before entering politics in the early 2000s. He is a guest lecturer in public leadership at Harvard University in the United States.

He recently published a memoir, Speaking My Mind (Penguin Books, $57.23, major bookshops). It reflects on his years in public office during Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. He wrote it while events were still fresh in his memory, saying: “I was in the hot seat during some extraordinary moments, and the book also talks about the very personal impact political life has on an individual.”

He joined US-based strategic advisory firm Penta Group as a global adviser recently, and visited Singapore in January as part of his work with the company.

“I was in politics for so long. I had to do so much reading of newspapers, magazines and official briefs that I didn’t read as much fiction or as many kinds of novels as I would like to. I’m trying to make more space for that now.

At the moment, I’m reading For And Against A United Ireland by Fintan O’Toole and Sam McBride. It is on Irish unification – they argue the case for and against, but what is interesting is they are both required to argue against their own position as well.

The reason I came across it was that I was at the Jaipur Literature Festival in January, and they were doing a talk on their book. So, I thought I should read it.

I still read a huge amount because that comes with being a lecturer part-time at Harvard. What I am trying to do much more is to have a proper book on the go. It is very easy to get sucked into reading things on your phone all the time, but not actually having a proper book. I like to have a physical book and be able to turn off all my screens.

Generally over summer or Christmas holidays, I will pull out one fiction and non-fiction book that I have accumulated over the course of the year and read those two. There is a good non-fiction book I read a few months ago called Prisoners Of Geography by Tim Marshall.

It takes 10 geographical facts and talks about how that frames history and politics. That kind of stuff is very interesting, which helps the job.

The fiction doesn’t necessarily help, it is largely escapism. Growing up, I really loved The Lord Of The Rings, that kind of fantasy fiction. You know, books like Midnight’s Children written by Salman Rushdie that have those fantasy and supernatural themes.

But to be able to sit by the pool or beach and have no screens anywhere, just the sound of water and words of the book in my head – that can be real time-out. I don’t have any hours a day I spend reading, but it’s a lot.

I am delighted that the long-predicted demise of the book has not proven to be the case. You see how well book festivals are attended now. People buy books as gifts all the time. People would have predicted that the advent of the audiobook might kill off the physical item, but it has not. I think they’re going to be around for a long time.

I think it’s important for everyone, more so than ever to read, because attention spans are getting shorter. People find it hard now to concentrate for more than 15 or 20 minutes without needing a break or to send a tweet. Reading forces you to concentrate and think a bit more deeply about things and that’s something of real value.”