Zdeněk Jirotka was born in Ostrava on January 7, 1911 and died in Prague on April 12, 2003.

After not finishing his studies at secondary school he served out as a bricklayer, later (1933) he graduated from building technical school in Hradec Králové.

After finishing the school he entered the Czechoslovak Army, where he served till 1940 as an infantry officer. Then he worked at the Ministry of public works and till the end of the WWII he made his living by literature. He worked as an editor of Lidové noviny (newspaper) from 1940 to 1945, then he became an editor of Svobodné noviny (newspaper), after 1951 he worked for two years for the humorous journal Dikobraz. Between 1953 and 1962 he worked in the Czechoslovak broadcast, from where he came back to Dikobraz, where he worked till the end of 60-ies.