Jamil Ahmad was born in Pakistan in 1932. He joined the civil service in 1954 and later became commissioner of Swat and commissioner of Waziristan. He only book, The Wandering Falcon, which was published while he was in his 80s, was a collection of short stories about life in the border region of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. It was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2011 and was also a finalist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. He died after a long illness in July 2014 at the age of 83.