NOT many children finish their school term by excitedly telling their friends that they're being looked after by the Queen at the start of the holidays.

Margaret Goulding's grandchildren did and they weren't telling tall tales either. Margaret is in fact royalty. She might reign over a small village in the southern mountains of Spain, but it's a title all the same.

Not only that but the 62-year-old, who together with husband Victor swapped her bungalow in Thundersley Park Road, Thundersley, for mediterranean life six years ago, has made history.

She's the first English person to ever be crowned a Queen in the whole of Spain. Not bad for a woman who hadn't uttered a word of Spanish until four years ago.

To put things in context, Margaret's new role is similar to that of a carnival Queen over here. Except in Spain the annual carnival, or fiestas as they are known, are on a much larger scale.

When Margaret, who was recently back in Essex to visit her family, accepted her tiara and sash the celebrations went on for three nights.

It's all a far cry from Margaret and Victor's early Spanish experiences. The pair, who have two daughters Ruth, who lives in Billericay, and Vicki, who lives in Hadleigh, and five grandchildren, first moved to Alicante when Victor, 68, took early retirement from his job as a cigarette vending machine engineer.

They hadn't been to Spain before, but had decided it was where they'd like to spend their twilight years. So they sold up, and headed in search of a better life.

Originally, it wasn't what they found.

"We wanted to live a Spanish life but it was full of English," she says of Alicante. "I found that the English go out there to party and after a couple of years have to come back because they run out of money."

"I do get embarrassed," she says. "They don't seem to understand the fact that they are living in someone else's country and should respect their way of life."

In the end, frustrated by the fact they were living in a home from home and hadn't spoken a word of Spanish, they sold up and decided to move to the mountains where they would finally get the Spanish lifestyle they craved.

They bought a ranch in a small village called El-Tolle at the top of the mountains and have fully embraced the local culture.

"It's very Spanish," says Margaret, or Margarita to her Spanish friends. "You have to speak the language, you wouldn't survive otherwise."

The couple now have a close circle of around 20 Spanish friends, who they regularly socialise and holiday with.

Margaret doesn't pretend the crossover was easy. She says her early visits to the market proved quite entertaining for the stall holders, with her making animal noises to communicate what meat she wanted. The couple persevered though, and with the help of their friends and Spanish television they were soon accepted as part of the local community. Now they are official residents of the country and have Spanish driving licences.

"Everything about me is Spanish now," boasts Margaret. "If you go to Spain to live, then to live cheaply you have to live the way they live," she says.

It's not something they're complaining about.

"All the food is fresh, they get it straight from the fields," says Margaret. "Nothing is out of a can, nothing is out of a freezer cabinet."

Their back garden, all 5,500 sq metres of it, is full of olives, almonds and fig trees, and as pensioners they are allowed to help themselves to the oranges and lemons off the trees.

"You go to the doctors and you haven't got a two week wait for an appointment. They see you immediately. If there's something they're not happy with, you go then and there to hospital and in the hospital's the staff are wonderful," boasts Margaret, who also gets a free yearly health check from her doctor.

Now after being crowned Queen of the village, the couple have truly embraced and been embraced by their Spanish neighbours and have no intentions of coming back to live in the UK.

"We live like lords out there," says Margaret, "We couldn't afford to live in England again and certainly not like we do in Spain."

Margaret says it's not always an easy ride for British people who emmigrate to Spain and she urges that anyone considering it does plenty of research.

"Vic and I did have bad experiences when we first moved over. We lost a lot of money. People have got to be so careful. They have got to do their research if they are thinking of going and don't believe everything the property agents tell you.

"Some people go out there so blind," she continues. "They think it's so easy, but I would say if anybody goes out there to live. My recommendation would be that they give it at least two years. If they're still not happy after that then come back."

Or do what Margaret and Victor did and find somewhere better suited to them.

"We wanted to retire somewhere and create a longer life for us and we've done that," says Margaret. "We feel healthier and there's absolutely no stress here.

"I couldn't wish for better friends or a better place to live. I just wish my family was there."