Hynam was killed on the afternoon of 17 July 1974 when a lorry hit his car at Werrington, a few miles outside Peterborough.

He left a wife, Phyl, and a daughter, Jennifer - who a week later gave birth to his first grandchild, a son, an event which he was awaiting with eager anticipation.

In the postscript to "Where No Stars Guide", published posthumously in 1975, Hynam's literary collaborator and close personal friend Dan Morgan wrote: "John had a larger-than-life physical and psychic presence.

Many further adventures were clearly intended for the Venturer's Captain, the tough macho Tom Bruce; his courageous, dedicated and sensitive Second in Command and former lover Helen Lindstrom; and their multi-racial crew.

As noted by Morgan, the character of Admiral Junius Farragut Carter, Captain Bruce's boss, was "Hynam's own wryly conceived self-caricature".