Ain’t Radio 4 great? This morning (but you can listen to it all week) the Start of the Week show has an interview with Audrey Kurkov, author of Penguin Lost and Death and the Penguin. His new book, A Matter of Death and Life, describes a man who hires a hitman to kill himself but then changes his mind. It sounds like Kurkov’s typically bleak but humourous tale.

One of the funniest jokes that Kurkov made was about the prevalance of death in the Ukraine. He made some joke (at 11mins 30) about a Ukrainian home office minister who committed suicide by shooting himself twice in the head. Only, it’s not a joke. The main interview with Kurkov was at 30mins through the show.