Losing the prime ministership has yielded at least one benefit for Tony Abbott: he has more time to read and is rediscovering a love of thrillers.
The former Liberal leader regards reading as "the best way to cultivate the mind". He recently finished Kevin Donnelly's monograph on Western civilisation, The Culture of Freedom, and is halfway through Anne Henderson's Menzies at War. But he does regret one effort, E.L. James' erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey.
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Trump win 'revenge of the deplorables': Abbott
Former PM Tony Abbott on the Bolt Report says US citizens are 'sick of being called sexist, racist and Islamaphobic'.
This is according to the former prime minister himself, who has revealed a lot about his reading and viewing tastes in a wide-ranging interview with ABC radio's Sunday Afternoon program.
"Something I haven't done for years I've been able to do a bit of over the last 12 months and that is to read thrillers. I've started reading some of the Daniel Silva books," he said, praising the American novels as fascinating and "high-pressure yarns".
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"The hero is an Israeli secret agent and he gets up to all sorts of adventures all around the world, whether it's dealing with dodgy prelates in the Vatican or Islamist terrorists. One way or another, he's busy."
It was on a recent flight back from the Middle East that Mr Abbott tackled Dr Donnelly's "wonderful evocation of the glories of our culture", a contribution to the Institute of Public Affairs' series on the West.
Fairfax Media reported last week that Winston Churchill's A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Geoffrey Blainey's The Story of Australia's People and the secret journal of former Chinese premier Zhao Ziyang also feature on Mr Abbott's summer reading list.
The conservative standard bearer was spotted with Fifty Shades a few years ago when it was topping bestseller lists. "I know it was wildly popular," he told ABC on Sunday, "but I didn't think it was a great book at all."
"I think, because it was being much talked about at the time, I might have picked it up an airport bookshop and thought I should at least become familiar with this talking point but I have to say it was few hours that could easily have been better spent."
The interview follows various public appearances and high-profile criticisms of the Turnbull government, which have been interpreted as an effort to return to cabinet. Last week, he said he was "dismayed" to see reports the Green Army, an environmental program his government introduced, was being abolished.
Whether it's on the page or screen, Mr Abbott generally avoids science fiction and fantasy but has found global blockbuster Game of Thrones to be "absolutely enthralling".
Although there's a period drama that will always be the favourite on the small screen.
"I still regard the Downton Abbey series as a masterpiece and I'm very upset that we've seen the last series," he said.
In a similar vein, the leading monarchist will soon be luxuriating in Netflix's celebrated production The Crown, which "sounds like a truly splendid series". But only after his "tech-savvy" daughter Bridget sets up the streaming service at the Abbott household.
In 2010, quizzed by The 7.30 Report on broadband policy, Mr Abbott famously confessed that he was "not a tech-head".
This weekend, the former prime minister said the necessary neglect of the important pastimes – like reading – to deal with the urgent affairs of state as a senior member of government is "the curse of public life".
In the Sunday afternoon interview, Mr Abbott did get political, defending US President-elect Donald Trump for taking a congratulatory phone call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, the first contact at that level since 1979 and a trigger for indignation from the Chinese government.
"I think it's perfectly reasonable for the President of the United States to take a courtesy call from the President of Taiwan," Mr Abbott said.
It was recently revealed that Mr Abbott, an author himself, is working on a new tome to follow up 2009's Battlelines. Battlescars has been joked about as a potential title.
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