Jo

This House of Grief is a heartbreaking audiobook by one of Australia's most admired authors. Anyone can see the place where the children died. You take the Princes Highway past Geelong, and keep going west in the direction of Colac. Late in August 2006, soon after I had watched a magistrate commit Robert Farquharson to stand trial before a jury on three charges of murder, I headed out that way on a Sunday morning, across the great volcanic plain.

Out on the ice, polar bears aren't the only natural born killers. Nick Stone is suffering. The two people he cared for most are gone. Thousands of miles away, five ex-servicemen, badly wounded in Afghanistan, are preparing for a trek to the North Pole in an attempt to begin to rebuild their shattered bodies and minds. When Stone is summoned as close protection for the trek by an old SAS officer, he accepts unthinkingly, desperate for the chance to escape his own misery.

A cargo ship is apprehended by the authorities off the coast of Spain, loaded to the gunwales with enough arms and ammunition to start a war. Twenty years later an unknown aggressor seems intent on eradicating those responsible for the treachery one by one. The last victim was brutally tortured with a Black & Decker drill, then shot through the head. And Nick Stone - ex-SAS, tough, resourceful, ruthless, highly trained - is next on the killer's list....

Ex-special forces soldier Nick Stone is recuperating in Switzerland. His latest mission cost the life of one of his closest friends. And the woman he went to bed with last night has left without saying goodbye. When she fails to reappear, Stone begins his quest to find her. Once in Africa and in the heart of a very dirty Congo war, it isn't long before the past comes knocking on the door.

Outside of Pakistan, the world's highest concentration of al-Qaeda lurks in Southeast Asia and there, Nick Stone's bosses get wind of an act of terror that will dwarf even the nightmare of 9/11. When Stone is dispatched to Malaysia by the CIA to assassinate a biochemist, he expects his mission to be a straightforward part of the fight against Bin Laden. But there are complications, not least because he is working alongside an attractive woman whose motives he doesn't fully understand.

If Nick Stone wasn't so desperate for his American citizenship, he probably wouldn't have agreed to do this one last job with the CIA. But Carrie is over there and he simply can't refuse the chance of a new life with the woman he loves.The job seems simple enough - and he is certainly skilled enough. Infiltrate the hostile, violent republic of Algeria, kill a money-laundering businessman, and bring back his severed head.

Tough, resourceful and ruthless, ex-SAS trooper Nick Stone is now working for British Intelligence on deniable operations. And is desperately in need of cash. When he is offered a lucrative freelance job, Stone thinks his problems are over. All he needs to do is kidnap a Russian mafia warlord. And so Stone is thrust into the grim underworld of Estonia, with unknown aggressors stalking the Arctic landscape. Russia has launched a cyber-espionage attack, hacking into the West's most sensitive military secrets. Stone must stop them.

Ex-SAS trooper Nick Stone is extremely highly trained. Clever, ruthless and very effective, it is no surprise that he is hired by British Intelligence. On deniable operations - one of the most dangerous lines of work. Sarah Greenwood is beautiful, intelligent and cunning - and the only woman Stone has ever truly opened up to. But now he has been ordered to hunt her down. Hotly pursued through the American wilderness, Stone finds himself at the centre of a deadly game of cat and mouse.

January 1991: IRAQ. Eight members of the SAS regiment embark upon a top-secret mission to infiltrate deep behind enemy lines. Under the command of Sergeant Andy McNab, they are to sever a vital underground communication link and to seek and destroy mobile Scud launchers. Their call sign: BRAVO TWO ZERO. Each laden with 15 stones of equipment, they tab 20km across the desert to reach their objective. But within days, their location is compromised. After a fierce fire fight, they are forced into evasive action. Four men are captured. Three die. Only one escapes.

Named by Time as America's Favourite Humorist, the uniquely perceptive and hilarious David Sedaris reads from his essays and diaries for his seventh series for Radio 4. This is the complete recording of Meet David Sedaris Series Seven, which was broadcast on Radio 4.