An American couple have returned to the Island to celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary, 50 years after they came here on their honeymoon.

And for 87-year-old Blake Hughes, the trip is the latest but hopefully not the last instalment in a long, romantic relationship with Bermuda that began back in the 1920s.

Mr. Hughes and his wife Betty, who live in Charleston, South Carolina, celebrated their half century together on Sunday with dinner at the Reefs, the hotel where they stayed in 1951 after travelling from New York in a flying boat.

But it was in 1922 that Mr. Hughes, a writer, first came to Bermuda to visit his grandmother Caroline Hughes, whose husband Henry Bascome Hughes, was Canon at the Anglican Cathedral.

At the time, at only eight years old, he was already writing and publishing a newspaper aimed at children of his own age and he included in its pages a story he had been told about how Bermuda's Crystal Caves were discovered by two boys as they were searching for a cricket ball years before.

An extract from his publication, The Real Boy's Paper, was sent in by his grandmother to what was then called The Royal Gazette and Colonist and it was published on May 1, 1924.

Asked what had inspired him to write a newspaper at such a young age, Mr. Hughes said: "I was always interested in stories. Back then we weren't so diverted by television so we did creative things such as that. It wasn't a great money maker but I enjoyed writing it."

Mr. Hughes, who wrote a book of short stories recently, arrived on the Island with his wife last Wednesday and he reminisced to The Royal Gazette about the first time he arrived on the Island on the passenger ship Fort Hamilton.

"A lot things have changed since then and, in a way, I miss the way it was,'' he said. Everything moved at a much slower pace and there was such a contrast between New York and here.

"There was a tremendous quietness about the Island compared to the hustle and bustle of the city. It was the utmost in tranquillity and I used to refer to it as a utopia."

He said much had changed even since the couple's honeymoon in 1951.

"The Island wasn't quite so dominated by big business and wealth but it was still very lovely and I think a bit safer on the roads."

But Mr. and Mrs. Hughes said they still had an undying love for the Island and added that they hoped to come back at some point.

"Bermuda's still about the nearest thing to a utopia you can find these days. The people are so graceful and friendly and it's a great example to the rest of the world of how people can live together and be so considerate to each other on a small island."