Jonathan Chance wrote under the pseudonym of John Lymington John Lymington.
John Richard Newton Chance was born in Streatham Hill, London, in 1911, the son of Dick Chance, a managing editor at the Amalgamated Press. He studied to become a civil engineer, and then took up quantity surveying, but gave it up at 21 to become a full-time writer. He wrote for his father's titles, including "Dane, the Dog Detective" for Illustrated Chips, and a number of stories for the Sexton Blake Library and The Thriller Library.
He went on to write over 150 science fiction, mystery and children's books and numerous short stories under various names, including John Lymington, John Drummond, David C. Newton, Jonathan Chance and Desmond Reid. Including 20+ SF potboilers, adding that he "made a steady income by delivering thrillers to Robert Hale (the UK publisher) at a chapter a week".
His novel Night of the Big Heat was adapted to television in 1960 and to film, starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, in 1967.
He served in the RAF during the Second World War, and later became a flying instructor. In 1943 he met his wife-to-be, Shirley Savill, at the time serving as a section officer in the WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force). They married on 22 July. In November of that year, Chance was given indefinite leave, and was invalided out with the permanent rank of flight lieutenant on 8 February 1944. He wrote about this time in his autobiography, Yellow Belly, published by Robert Hale in 1959.
After the war, he moved to Hampshire with his wife, where their three sons were born. The family moved to the Isle of Wight in 1956, to take up management of a pub.
During his lifetime, John Newton Chance's imagination and remarkable talent for storytelling made him a worldwide bestseller and brought plaudits from the newspapers of the time.
He died on 3 August 1983.
