Zoë Dunkley
2025/26
Zoe Dunkley: winner of the Messrs Fletcher and Frost Fiction Award
Hi everyone, I’m Zoë. I live in Basel, Switzerland with my husband and daughters, and I’ve been writing fiction for three and a half years. I’m a biochemist by training and spent 19 years in the pharmaceutical industry supporting oncology clinical trials. I recently took a career break to properly learn the craft - and promptly fell in love with the pursuit. OK, I admit it. I’m now completely obsessed.
What is your shortlisted novel about?
My novel Sunrise on an Unlikely Safari, is set in Botswana in 1986 and follows three working-class female travel agents who escape their lives and the post-miners-strike Midlands, to test-drive the ‘perfect' new safari. Through wild adventures, tangled flirtations and unravelling secrets, they journey towards self-discovery - until a disappearance turns paradise upside down. It’s commercial women’s fiction that blends escapism, mystery and middle-aged reinvention in the kaleidoscopic 1980s.
What has helped you improve as a writer?
So. Many. Things. Jericho Writers formed the backbone of my education. Early on, I gobbled up every course included in the membership. I’ve also completed two of their paid programmes, where expert and peer-to-peer feedback are central - that level of insight is transformative. The sheer breadth of perspective is invaluable. It also helped me find my tribe - that may be the most important part of all.
What advice would you give to someone who is considering entering Ascent Novel Prize?
Do it. My experience of Ascent has been extraordinary. If you make the Top 100, an entire world of support opens up. Thanks to Hayley and the chat group she created, I now have a literary hive mind at my fingertips - it's truly global and what’s remarkable is that we’re all in the same boat.
Opening Pages
1st March 1986
Birmingham Post
British Travel Agent Missing in Botswana
The Home Office has confirmed the disappearance of a British travel agent from a remote resort in Botswana. The employee of Midlands-based ‘Sunrise Travel’ group remains unnamed. Local authorities are interviewing the six remaining Sunrise representatives, staff and resort guests as the search continues across the Okavango Delta and surrounding bushland. Details remain unclear, but hopes are high for the agent’s safe return. 10th January 1986
Chapter 1 – Bea
Can you go on the holiday of a lifetime when your husband has just died?
Bea leant back from her desk, letter in hand, and contemplated her first big solo life decision. The letter wasn’t addressed to her, but it wasn’t technically stealing; she opened her boss’s post all the time – usually when requested, rarely on a whim. And never before eight a.m., still wearing her anorak, whilst her perm dripped its Monday morning melancholy all over the office carpet.
She glanced out of the condensation-clogged office window. Stafford’s high street was dark and damp, all slick cobblestones and oily rainbow puddles. God, how she needed a break. To go somewhere new. Somewhere brighter. Drier. To think about something different.
Forty-seven, and a year as a widow. Damn that word.
She had barely slept, remembering, chatting to the heavens, trying to digest the one-year milestone. So, she had come into work early, hoping to escape her thoughts and the empty house, its echoes of Charlie in every corner.
Could she go away now? Should she? It was her job after all: to experience holidays and then sell them through fabulous first-hand stories and shiny brochures. But the last place she’d holidayed with Charlie had been Barmouth – faded and barnacle-encrusted. Swanning off to Africa so soon felt like a betrayal.
She took another look.
Dear Stafford Sunrise Travel – Office Manager,
We are thrilled to invite your office to nominate one outstanding salesperson for an exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime week-long educational safari to Botswana. Stafford’s employee will join six other Sunrise Agency representatives on this incredible journey. Hosted by Sikukuu Safaris, an innovative Botswana-based tour group, this pioneering safari showcases their new luxurious, immersive resorts and experiences.
Regards,
Sunrise Head Office
The office manager, Darrell (‘Call me Daz’) wouldn't be in anytime soon, and when he did show up, she knew how this would go down – like all the others: ‘They just like the office managers to go, more experience y’know. More professional like.’
She’d always dreamt of Africa – with Charlie of course. She pictured him now, coal dust ingrained in his laughter lines; she could almost hear him: ‘Go for it, girl.’
Maybe it was the anger that bloomed from grief, frustration – boredom even – that drove her next step. Or maybe she’d just had enough of her sloppy manager, rocking up late, brylcreemed to the max, flirting with the customers and pinching all the freebies.
With shaking hands, she whipped out the nomination form, filled in her details, added Darrell’s signature and sealed the envelope. That would teach him to insist she forge his signature on booking forms so he could enjoy a long lunch – or another business holiday.
Before she had a chance to change her mind, Bea grabbed a first-class stamp, left the office, and hurried over the shiny cobbles to the post-box. By the time she arrived back, she’d plotted her next step. Without shrugging off her wet coat or flicking the kettle on, she reached for the phone.