6 February: Reggae Day/Bob Marley

Today is Reggae Day, a day to recognise musicians in this genre, but in particular, Bob Marley, who was born on this date in 1945. It's also Bob Marley Day in Jamaica. Here are ten things you might not know about Bob Marley.

1. His real name was Nesta Robert Marley and he was born in St Anne's Parish, Jamaica. However, when people pointed out that Nesta sounded like a girl's name, the two names were switched so Nesta became his middle name.
2. His father was a white sea captain called Norval Sinclair Marley who was 40 years older than his mother, Cedella. Because his father was white, he was bullied at school and nicknamed "White Boy". He would later say that this experience led him to the philosophy that he wasn't on either the black man's side or the white man's side, but on God's side.
3. As a child, he showed some talent at palm reading and fortune telling, but gave that up completely when he realised his destiny lay in Music.
4. He married Sunday school teacher Rita Anderson when he was 21. She had a daughter from a previous relationship who Marley adopted. As well as the four children he had with Rita, he had eight more, with eight different women. Rumour has it there were even more illegitimate children he never officially claimed.
5. He was a big Football fan and would play soccer with his band and crew between soundchecks. He was, by all accounts, as good at football as some professional players. He once described football as "Freedom, a whole universe".
6. He not only earned an Order of Merit from his home country, Jamaica (given to citizens who achieve eminent international distinction in any field) but also a United Nations Peace Medal for his advocacy for "disenfranchised blacks around the world".
7. His mother raised him as a Catholic, but as he grew up he turned to the Rastafarian faith instead. That religion forbids the cutting of hair, which led to Marley's famous dreadlock style. His faith also influenced his music.
8. It was no secret that he smoked cannabis, but he didn't do so just to get high. To him, it was a tool to use in meditation to help achieve enlightenment and self-awareness.
9. He died in 1981, aged just 36, from cancer. He was buried with a soccer ball, some weed, and a ring given to him by the Crown Prince of Ethiopia.
10. His music, however, lives on and still sells - in 2016 he was the sixth highest-earning dead celebrity according to Forbes, and as recently as 2014, his album Legend reached the top ten when Google Play made it available for 99 cents.

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Settling the Score

Another collection of short stories, even more murder and mayhem with carol singers, an orchestra out for revenge, a sinister magic stone and a haunted mansion.

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A Tale of Two Sisters

During a battle with supervillains, a horrific accident leaves the Warner family with no option but to believe their youngest daughter, Jessica, is dead. It doesn't occur to them that the bad guys could, or would, save her.

Jessica wakes up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be on a space station with two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye. She is told her family abandoned her and is sent back to Earth with a mission - to kill them. While Jessica wants to kill her family, along with the twin boys who once rejected her, she knows what the Alliance of Supervillains are asking her to do is a suicide mission. She decides to get her revenge in her own way.

As Jessica puts the first part of her revenge plan in motion, she finds herself with an agonising decision to make. Before she can decide, the Alliance come for her, determined to make her do their bidding. This time, it's the Alliance who leave her, crippled and at the mercy of the Warner family, who have no idea who the Alliance's Black Rose really is.

Jessica finds herself having to re-think her decisions in light of what she now learns about her family, the Alliance, the twins, and herself. It would appear the Alliance have left her with an unwanted and permanent reminder of her time with them. Or have they?

Jessica's older sister, Jill, knows her destiny is to be a doctor and specialise in bionics and genetic variant medicine. She is also hopelessly in love with Christopher, Crown Prince of Galorvia. Can their romance survive the lies Christopher told her when they were both at school, an unplanned pregnancy and Sophie, the wannabe princess who comes between them?

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