Bob Marley's cousin found in Devon

Bob Marley's closest living British relative wore an expression of mild disdain as she heard her cousin's music for the first time. “It's all right,” she said as she listened to the world's most famous reggae singer giving a languid rendition of Keep on Moving. “I wouldn't leave the room for it.”

Carole Tovey, who was born Carole Marley, was ignorant of her link to musical history until this week, when The Times visited her at her cottage in Ilfracombe, North Devon. She is strikingly unlike her musical relative, with whom she shares a great-grandfather. Her hair does not hang in dreadlocks, she has listened to reggae only once in her life, and she is white.

It is well documented that Bob Marley was the son of Norval Marley, a white Jamaican of British descent, and Cedella Booker, a black woman, but no one had successfully traced his closest British-born relatives. The connection was finally made last week by a researcher at the Hay Festival, where the musician's record producer and mentor, Chris Blackwell, is giving a talk on Friday.



Historians appear to have neglected the Ilfracombe branch of the family because in the 1871 census the grandfather concerned was on a separate page from his older siblings.

Mrs Tovey, 66, never suspected that she had a connection to the man who turned reggae from a Caribbean speciality into a worldwide phenomenon. “It has always been a joke in the family. People would always say: 'Are you any relation to Bob Marley?' and I would say: 'Yes, he's my cousin'. We would laugh about it. Now it turns out it is the gospel truth.”

When I first heard, I thought, 'Bloody hell, they're not going to ask me for money, are they?'. I told my daughter. She said, 'What have you been drinking?'.” Peter Roberts, her son from her first marriage, interjected: “Or what have you been smoking?” Mrs Tovey frowned disapprovingly. She is fond of a cigarette but, unlike Bob Marley, has never had a passion for cannabis.

Full story here.