Author: writegill

Lecturer in English, Toulouse University II, IUT Figeac, France. Ph.D received suma cum laude: dissertation on William Faulkner. Served with distinction in the French Foreign Legion. Commissioned officer in the Punjab Regiment, active service in Kashmir Publications:two novels, three non-fiction books, doctoral dissertation. Active member, International Association of Thriller Writers. Contributing Editor for The Big Thrill, official webzine of The International Association of Thriller Writers. Interview in the December 16-31, 2008 issue of The Caravan, India. Five-page featured interview in the November 2010 issue of Media Vision, India: “correctly analysed … world trends ...” http://www.mediavoicemag.com/frontpage/3821.html. Writing Credits. Published Fiction. Both novels published by Bewrite Books listed in The Writers and Artists’ Yearbook. 1. Blood Money. GILL, Azam, Bewrite Books, UK, pbk., 316 pages, , 2002. ISBN-10: 1904224911. Len Deighton : “a first-class thriller with authentic backgrounds that take the action around the world”. http://original.antiwar.com/bock/2006/07/08/reality-based-recommendations/ Alan Bock — columnist and the senior writer for the editorial page of the Orange County Register — : “ … impart(s) an authentic flavor to the spy thriller genre. This is the kind of fiction that evokes a stronger sense of how the world really works than any number of the kind of history and foreign policy analysis books that are more often on my nightstand. Fun and informative.” http://www.absolutewrite.com/novels/blood_money.htm Deepa Kandaswamy freelance journalist and interviewer: “… fascinating book … Gill weaves a web of intrigue, mystery and suspense which surprises with its honesty, insider knowledge …, and the astonishing simplicity of operations … a true page turner … fantastic book, fact and fiction are so finely mixed.” 2. Flight to Pakistan. GILL, Azam, Bewrite Books, UK, pbk., 356 pages, 2002. ISBN-13: 978-1904492269. http://deepakandaswamy.blogspot.com/2007_09_16_archive.html#7163630436102176359 Deepa Kandaswamy freelance journalist and interviewer: “… a multilayered, multidimensional story of intrigue, first love, murder, caste, and honor that spans continents, race, and families. It is not often you get to read Asian fiction that does not use the Western stereotypes or the colonial setting of the East … irrespective of where you grew up, the story will move you. Extremely visual in style, I hope it would be made into a movie soon”. Published Non Fiction. 1. The Effect of Editing on ‘Flags in the Dust’ by William Faulkner. GILL Azam, doctoral dissertation received suma cum laude from Stendhal University, France. Published by University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, 1988. 2. Winds of Change: Geopolitics and the World Order. GILL, Azam, Writer’s Club Press, USA, pbk. 352 pages, 2001. 3. Jail Reforms. GILL, Azam, Peoples Publishing House, Lahore, Pakistan, pbk., 50 pages, 1978. Library of Congress Catalogue Card N° 78-930627. Nawa-e-Waqt, Pakistan’s leading Urdu Daily, 17 August 1978: “…the scholarly author not only enlightens his readers (by) solid and productive suggestions … that could produce far better results … the author’s resourcefulness, scholarship, clarity of thought … (for the) common reader … the writing is a reflection of the enlightened author’s love for humanity and his eloquent, colloquial writing style.” The Pakistan Times 03 March 1978: “…a sincere,, well meaning endeavour in a cruelly, disastrously mismanaged sector of social concern. … reforms …deserve serious consideration... well meaning endeavour….” 4. Army Reforms. GILL, Azam, Peoples Publishing House, Lahore, Pakistan, hardbound, 97 pages, 1979. Library of Congress Catalogue Card N° 79-930870.

Analysing the Psychology of the Jackal in Fiction & Life

by Azam Gill,

“Azam suggests that the 2024 “Day of the Jackal” series reimagine Forsyth’s classic, incorporating modern moral complexities and character divergences, an exclusive for Different Truths,” published on 10 March 2025.

The November 2024 Sky Atlantic television thriller series is the eighth creative venture capitalising Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 ground-breaking novel, Day of the Jackal. Resurrected, refitted and written by Ronan Bennett, starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch, and directed by Brian Kirk, Anthony Philipson, Paul Wilmshurst and Anu Menon, it has garnered two Golden Globe nominations, Best Television Series, and Best Actor for Redmayne.

Seven steps lead to the corpus of convergences and divergences between the 1971 and the 2024 Jackals.
The origins of the nickname Jackal.
The myth and reality of snipers.
The British army’s fascination with lowly animals.
The Jackal in thrillers.
The real-life jackal.
Assassins and serial killers.
Irony and the attraction of evil.
Life and art, greed and integrity, act and intention, unify these components.

…………. Read the full article in Different Truths: click below
https://www.differenttruths.com/spotlight-analysing-the-psychology-of-the-jackal-in-fiction-life/

writegill
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Themes of Liberation in Sunset in a Cup

Dr. Azam Gill reviews Dr Santosh Bakaya’s SUNSET IN A CUP, a collection of 78 poems that employs vivid imagery and insightful metaphors, exclusively for Different Truths.

The starburst of sophisticated sensory images in Dr Santosh Bakaya’s collection of seventy-eight poems, Sunset in a Cup, offers an epicurean feast of the visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile, uninhibitedly flirting with the senses. Emily Dickinson’s poem inspires the title, and Santosh Bakaya’s introductory prose is poetical. She retrieves and owns Dickinson’s imagery, elevating it to another dimension with laudable control over each thematic pearl, strung with passion. A collection of seventy-eight previously published poems, now consolidated in a single volume for justified impact and pleasure.

Emily Dickinson’s cup had sunset in it. Santosh’s cup runneth over into the saucer without an overflow on her refined embroidery.

Read the full article in Different Truths, Focus, published on 8 February 2025
https://www.differenttruths.com/focus-themes-of-liberation-in-sunset-in-a-cup/

A Polynesian Road Trip: Fruits, Flowers & the Spirit of Iaorana

by Azam Gill, Dec 25, 2024, in Different Truths

Azam recounts an experience in Tahiti, on the way to Teahupo’o, where a traffic jam transformed into a Polynesian party, showcasing the locals’ civilised and joyful approach to unexpected delays, exclusively for Different Truths.

We drove down from Papaeete to Teahupo’o to my daughter and son-in-law’s campsite, only 500 meters from the waves where the 2024 surfing events for the summer Olympics were held. Grandma Mamie’s well-tried Nissan people carrier welcomes weekend odds and ends without complaining about packing space. When my daughter takes the wheel, she puts the car into steady motion and then tends to relax by crossing her left leg over the right thigh without, of course—phew—grabbing the left ankle with her right hand.
A mite worrying, to which she reacts with a delighted smile: “Papaaa, it’s an automatic, so my foot doesn’t need to hover over the clutch.”

After brief stops at two breathtaking waterfalls, we took up the road again, petitioning for good luck to the estuaries spilling their gurgling flow from the mountains into the sea and munching home-made snacks bought from roadside stalls. The scent of tipanier frangipani flowers and the small basket of mangoes—the size, taste, and aroma of the Malda variety—suffused the car.
Read the full article in Different Truths, published on 25 December 2024
https://www.differenttruths.com/a-polynesian-road-trip-fruits-flowers-the-spirit-of-iaorana/

Tahitian Sunset

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Love Across Borders: A Family’s Journey in Time and Traditions—Part Two

Azam’s memoir explores the complexities of partition, highlighting loss, reunion, cultural exchange, and the power of human connection in a family’s journey across borders, exclusively for Different Truths.

Read More here https://www.differenttruths.com/love-across-borders-a-familys-journey-in-time-and-traditions-part-two/

BAD-DAD AND UNCLE Choudhry Mohammed Hussein, his boss, weren’t just content with a sumptuous tea party to reset our emotional equilibrium. They took the necessary steps for us to be able to claim a semblance of partial victory over defeat for the sake of our life-long mental health.

Cashing in favours, they cajoled and bullied an exit and entry visa for one-mum and two children for India, though not Kashmir. The family from Kashmir would come down to Indian Punjab. Although we would not be able to visit one-mum’s parental home on Residency Road, Jammu, we would be able to meet our blood relatives. It was some sort of a bureaucratically paranoid one-parent-two-children type exit visa, also ensuring that Bad-dad and bhaijan staying back would guarantee against any hanky-panky us three might get up to in India. Or, if it was all five of us, we might just cross the border and announce our defection!

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Love, Hope and Heartbreak: A 1960-Journey Through History—Part I,

by Azam Gill

In 1960, the Indo-Pakistani conflict impacted Azam’s family reunion, highlighting the enduring bonds of family across borders and the human cost of political strife. An exclusive

WHEN my mother, sister and I went to India, it was still five years short of the ill-thought out and unnecessary 1965 war which ensured that cousins reeling from the fratricidal madness of the 1947 massacres, topped by the 1948 Kashmir War, would remain mired in deadly squabbles over self-identification, self-image and real estate. And ‘sir jee,’ the now ubiquitous cross-border, visa-free form of address linking vernacular Urdu and vernacular Hindi speakers in a sycophantic doublet had not even been conceived.

In 1959, General Ayub Khan, the President of Pakistan, had promoted himself to Field Marshal, not because of any laurels in battle field generalship, but only because he could. There was nobody to oppose him and, if there had been, he was sure that the result of the impending 1965 war predicted by his ‘son’ Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, progeny of a ‘Sir,’ brought up by an English nanny and, groomed by good old Berkley and Oxford, would take care of it.

We all know how that went down!

Read More here https://www.differenttruths.com/love-hope-and-heartbreak-a-1960-journey-through-history-i/

Raksha Bandhan’s Legacy of Protection and Love

by Azam Gill in DIFFERENT TRUTHS

Raksha Bandhan is an allegory of love, trust, protection, the spoken word, human frailty and honour. An annual ritual between biological and non-biological brothers and sisters renews trust through the inviolability of a promise, strengthening social cohesion.
“Rakhsha Bandhan ensured that in a patriarchal society, brothers would take the responsibility of their sisters’ safety and well-being.
“It created a bond between siblings and enhanced their natural love and affection.
“Tying a rakhee to a non biological brother also binds him to only brotherly feelings.
“Rakhi brother is a common term.”
Professor Roopali Sircar Gauhar, PhD …. to read the full article https://www.differenttruths.com/raksha-bandhans-legacy-of-protection-and-love/

TWINNING IN Saeed Ibrahim’s “TWIN TALES from KUTCCH”

Vitalizing twinning in this period saga, Saeed Ibrahim deftly overlaps characters, places, and situations within the novel’s hall of tactically placed mirrors in perfect sync. TWIN TALES is a microcosmic, counterfactual gem of the period preceding the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan — a ray of sanity, overriding divisions and separation, to rebuke the macrocosmic killing fields and trains of death the British left as their legacy. Not to speak of 88% illiteracy, 32 years life expectancy and no health service or public education worth the name, except for fee-paying, lucrative schools for the elite to ensure unequal opportunity.
TWIN TALES OF THE KUTCCH brings love, family and humanity to the fore in subliminal criticism of the brutal independence of India.

Coming soon: full review in https://www.differenttruths.com/

Afghanistan Alexander’s descendants Azam Gill BBC Asian Network Blasphemy Blasphemy Pakistan books British Asians British Raj Caste Cattle rustling CIA DJ Nihal Express Tribune France French Foreign Legion India India-Pakistan tensions Kalash Karakorams Lahore LOC Kashmir militant Islamic fundamentalists Nepal Pakistan Pakistani Christians Pakistani Christmas Persecution of Christian minorities poetry Punjabi village Christians Punjab Regiment Punjab smugglers rat people Rustling Satire South Asia South Asian Warriors Stiff Upper Lip Terrorism Tony Blair USA US Presidential election US Special Forces World War I Victoria Cross writing

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Stejskal demonstrates that successful unconventional warfare requires diverse skills—technical expertise, cultural awareness, diplomatic finesse, logistical acumen, and tactical audacity—rarely found in a single individual. The BMM succeeded because it assembled specialists whose complementary capabilities created synergistic effects. This insight has profound implications for how modern special operations units are organized and deployed.

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TWIN TALES FROM KUTCCH: a microcosmic, counterfactual gem of the period preceding the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan — a ray of sanity…

Azam Gill reviews COBALT, Chris Bauer’s latest thriller.

The plotting of Rick Bauer’s COBALT is an intricate spider’s web of meticulous cunning, bringing in, controlling and coordinating disparate and conflicting elements. COBALT throbs with suspense, crime, politics, big business, government, foreign intrigue, geopolitics, and conspiracy disrupting the lives of good, honest folk.
Full Review Here: https://www.differenttruths.com/reviews/book-review/thriller-cobalt-explores-morality-in-a-high-stakes-race/

Mike Broemmel

Playwright, Novelist, Speaker

“Mike Broemmel is the 21st century’s answer to John Steinbeck at his most nitty-gritty.”- Neil Marr, Monaco, Publisher & Editor

Biography of Mike Broemmel

Mike Broemmel is a prolific playwright, with nearly two-dozen of his plays produced in the past decade. A number of his award-winning plays have been in continuous production since their initial premieres. 

Mike’s plays are produced across the United States and internationally. In 2019, his play  Stand Still & Look Stupid was a featured production at Féile an Phobail, the largest arts festival in Northern Ireland. In 2023, his play I’m Harvey Milk ran Off-Broadway. In 2024, a series of six of Mike’s plays is running at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Two of his plays are being staged at the 2024 Imagine Belfast Festival in Northern Ireland. 

Mike’s career began in the White House Office of Media Relations ….. https://mikebroemmel.com/bio

Mike Broemmel Homepage https://mikebroemmel.com/

Mike Broemmel’s Books https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mike+broemmel&i=stripbooks&crid=20HVZ677FI757&sprefix=mike+broemmel%2Cstripbooks%2C197&ref=nb_sb_noss

WORLD JATT / JAAT DAY
“Multi sourced information and Extensively researched,” Dr. V. Gill, USA

Saga Indicus traces the origins of the Indian Jatts. Agriculturists, warriors, and now represented in all the professions, they are mainly found in Punjab, Sindh, Rajputana and the western portion of the Gangetic Doab. The origins of Jatts cannot be traced without exploring ancient Indian history which takes the lion’s share of Indo-European studies. The origin of the Jatt people is traceable through the meaning of the word itself, referred to in Panini’s Ashtadyayi, and further back in The Mahabharta itself. The trail of overlapping meanings leads back in time from Panini (450BC)’s Ashtadyayi to The Mahabharta, and forward in time to the present-day Jatts and their constituent Gill clan. Saga Indicus undertakes this study through: The Panini Fulcrum: 400 BC. The Vikramaditya Fulcrum: 375-415 BC. The Prithipal Fulcrum: AD 9. The Bhatinda Fort fulcrum: AD 783. The Gilpal Fulcrum: AD 1113. Saga Indicus is crucial to the understanding of Indo-European cultures.