THE hunt is over for a former Bolton factory owner believed to be heir to an uninhabited Caribbean island.

Friends contacted Margaret Parry at her home in Alicante, Spain, after The Bolton News revealed documentary makers were keen to trace her.

Mrs Parry is the granddaughter of the cult science-fiction author MP Shiel, the first king of Redonda.

The island, near Montserrat in the West Indies, was claimed by Irishman Matthew Shiel in 1865, who crowned his 15-year-old son Matthew Jnr as king.

The youngster grew up to become the prolific author MP Shiel and writer Roger Dobson, who is planning a television documentary on the saga, was particularly keen to get in contact with his heir "Queen Maggie".

Mrs Parry said: "I was rather surprised when my friends rang me. I've always been aware of my family's connection to the island and visited Redonda about 14 years ago.

"It's very mountainous and completely uninhabited, although there was a small mining community living there until the 1950s."

Mrs Parry, a widow in her 50s with four children and four grandchildren, used to run Parry Contracts Furniture factory in Bolton and lived in Ramsbottom.

"I don't take the Queen Maggie title very seriously. I'm prouder to be able to say I'm related to MP Shiel who was a very talented man and a great author," she said.