Rupinderpal Singh Dhillon

Dhillon was born in West London and initially raised in Southall.

Originally intending to write an English novel based on the life of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the mode of Alexandre Dumas, Dhillon became interested in writing in Punjabi after learning the Gurmukhi alphabet in his thirties.

He writes in the locally spoken form of the language whose syntax is influenced by English;[1][2][3] sometimes called 'Punglish', it had not previously been written down.

[4] His work is mainly influenced by Western literature and confronts social issues including racism, gender bias and incest.

[2] In his later novels such as the experimental gothic novel O, he employs a genre he calls Vachitarvaad, which encompasses science fiction, fantasy, horror and magical realism.