John Richard Newton Chance (1911 – 3 August 1983), who wrote as John Lymington, was born in London. He was a prolific writer of short stories, children's literature, mystery and science fiction novels. An obituary in Ansible [1] credits Lymington with writing over 150 novels, 'including 20+ SF potboilers', adding that he 'made a steady income by delivering thrillers to Robert Hale (the publisher) at a chapter a week'.