A collection of BBC radio readings from the great American writer John Updike Golf Dreams: As a golfer for almost forty years, John Updike has written frequently about the game. This gathering of his pieces covers everything from the peculiar charms of bad golf and the satisfactions of an essentially losing struggle to the camaraderie of good golf and its own attendant perils. An abridged reading, read by John Updike.



The Afterlife: John Updike reads his own story, set in East Anglia in 1986. One night, Carter Billings gets up to use the bathroom and falls down the stairs in the dark. Miraculously, something catches his fall, and he lands safely. This incident gives him a new, almost transcendent, perspective on existence.



Cruise: A man and a woman, both in the process of divorcing their separate spouses, are unhappy in their own. They take a vacation from their problems and pursue a sexual relationship with each other behind the backs of their partners and everyone in their lives at home. Two very unhappy people come together, and they connect through their mutuality of divorce and heartache. Read by John Updike.



Scenes from the 50s: Read by John Updike.



New York Girl: This is New York in the sixties, when the city 'cried out for you to establish another life'. But what might be the consequences? Read by John Updike.



The Faint: Freddy Python wonders whether to finish with his girlfriend... a trip to the theatre, a tight dress and an unexpected foray into the ladies' room help him make up his mind. Read by John Guerrasio.



Poker Night: A middle-aged, unnamed man, after being diagnosed with cancer, continues his long-standing, every-other-Wednesday poker game with friends as a way to deny his terminal illness and avoid telling his wife the bad news. Read by Kerry Shale.