J.P. Donleavy was born on April 23, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for The Ginger Man, ITV Play of the Week (1955) and Kys mig på tåen (1968). He was married to Mary Wilson Price and Valerie Heron. He died on September 11, 2017 in Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland.
He wrote more than a dozen novels and story collections, many of them set in Dublin, Ireland. He served in the Navy during WWII, then moved to Dublin, where he studied zoology at Trinity College.