Speaking My Mind

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Leo Varadkar shares his fascinating experience as Irish prime minister at a time of much change and turbulence, in this remarkably honest memoir.

Leo Varadkar was an unlikely Taoiseach – the youngest on taking office in 2017, the first Taoiseach to be gay, and the first person of colour to be Taoiseach.

Equally unlikely was his decision to bow out of politics in his mid-forties. Now, liberated from the constraints of office, he tells his fascinating story with characteristic courage and candour, and provides a unique insight into the formation and evolution of a senior politician.

In Speaking My Mind Leo Varadkar shares his pride in helping to bring about transformational changes, such as marriage equality. He describes experiences that only a prime minister could have – speaking frankly to Pope Francis on the legacy of church abuses, connecting with Barack Obama about both being the ‘tall, dark guy with the funny name’, navigating challenges such as the pandemic and the fallout from Brexit. And he writes honestly about the costs that go with the immense privilege of holding high office.

Speaking My Mind is a revealing, intimate and important memoir from a singular public figure.

© Leo Varadkar 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

Brings to life some of the behind-the-scenes moments of what has been a transformative period in Irish and global politics
Sunday Independent
A lively and easy read and can help in future examinations of a very fast-changing Ireland
Irish Independent
A great read ... fascinating insights
RTÉ Radio 1
Refreshingly honest
The Guardian
Whatever your views on Varadkar and his political legacy, you'll be gripped by these stories
Sunday Independent
Candid … engagingly honest
Financial Times
He is easy, cosmopolitan company, judiciously bitchy, but never cruel. I own a lot of books written by and about Irish politicians and this one is the most human in its telling
The Times
There is gossip, revealing text exchanges and entertaining titbits … the reader gets a good sense of the pressures of serving as taoiseach
Irish Times
Highly illuminating on the relationship between self-suppression and the reactionary social conservatism he once espoused . . . There’s real life and real insight in these passages
The Observer
Fascinating insights into his own thinking and the behaviour of others
Irish Daily Mail

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