Leo Varadkar - A Very Modern Taoiseach

The emergence of Leo Varadkar in Irish politics and his election to the post of Taoiseach is a remarkable tale from any perspective. Journalists Philip Ryan and Niall O'Connor tell the inside story of how the son of an Indian immigrant battled against adversity and with his own sexuality to become the youngest and first openly gay Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland. This will be the definitive account of how an outspoken young politician has shaped Ireland's future by coming out as gay in full view of the public before going on to orchestrate a secret two-year campaign which saw him become leader of the country.

Along the way, he put his political career on the line to defend police whistle blowers and survived an internal party purge after he backed the loser in a failed leadership heave against former Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny. In the book, family, friends and colleagues have for the first time provided an exclusive behind-the-scenes account of Mr Varadkar's meteoric rise to power. Ryan and O'Connor, both prominent political correspondents working for Ireland's biggest newspaper group, Independent News and Media, have spent months analysing in detail Mr Varadkar's personal and political background to comprehensively tell the story of the most talked-about Irish politician in decades.