A father and son have been reunited by chance after almost 50 years.

Author Derek Honey, now 69, has been reunited with his son Michael thanks to a nephew, who was looking into family history.

Mr Honey, of Queen Emmas Dyke, Witney, last saw his son as a child 48 years ago.

He split up with his first wife Barbara, who moved to Liverpool and remarried. Mr Honey agreed that his son could be adopted by her new husband and take the new surname Robinson.

Mr Honey said: "My family told me it was the best for the boy and it did seem the best thing to do. I kept out of the way and lost contact."

Unknown to him, his former wife later moved back to Oxfordshire and Michael went to Sandhills Primary School in Oxford.

While a pupil there, he became close friends with a boy of the same age, Andrew Castle.

Last year, Mr Castle, through looking into his family tree, discovered that he and Michael were actually cousins.

Mr Castle was dumbfounded and set out to trace Michael, now 49, and found out he was now living in the United States, in Florida.

Mr Honey said: "Andrew is my nephew and shortly afterwards he told me that he'd been in touch with Michael and that he was keen to hear from me."

He discovered that Michael was married, had a daughter and that, overnight, he also had become a great- grandfather.

He said: "We now telephone each other every week and letters and photos have passed between us.

"It came straight out of the blue and is absolutely amazing.

''I was in the RAF when when my first marriage went wrong. Being abroad so often, it was the best thing that he stayed with Barbara and had a new dad."

Mr Honey subsequently remarried twice and had four sons and a daughter.

He added: "I would love to visit him, but unfortunately my doctor advises me not to go on long-haul flights, because of the fear of deep vein thrombosis.

"Michael's a gardener and he and his wife hope to visit next year. That will be some reunion."

Mr Honey is an author of several books on Witney, Oxford and Oxfordshire and is also a frequent letter writer to the Oxford Mail and our sister paper, the Witney Gazette.