Mary Dobbs was born on the same day as Peter Sutcliffe, the notorious serial killer known as the Yorkshire Ripper. Instead of murdering adversaries who cross her path, however, she resorts to more subtle acts of revenge. Even so, these actions do not always provide the expected results; hilarity occurs at least as often as vengeance. In her memoir, Mary shares her amusing coming-of-age journey to overcome religious dogma in post-war London during the ever-changing 1950s and 1960s.

From an early age, Mary chronicles how she always fancied herself as a trailblazer who nurtured a strong desire to become the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. A self-proclaimed lover of words, Mary made up many of her own to overcome the boredom of her restricted life, in which she was expected to mimic the behavior of her namesake, the mother of Jesus. Determined to change her life, Mary waits until she is a teenager to dye her hair orange, attend a Beatles concert, discover Soho, and splash in the fountains in Trafalgar Square on New Year's Eve.

"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Inventing My Childhood" offers a witty glimpse into one woman's entertaining journey as she fights to hold onto her identity, discover her passions in life, and ultimately achieve her true destiny.

Acknowledging the challenges and opportunities raised by Brexit for the agrifood supply chain and agricultural policies across the UK, this book provides the first in-depth analysis of agricultural policy developments across the UK's four nations rooted in strong theoretical and practical underpinnings. Arguing that the four nations could be more ambitious in departing from the Common Agricultural Policy and extending beyond the 'public money for public goods' approach adopted across the UK, it critiques the core attributes of their policies with focuses including the debate over outcome-based schemes, governance mechanisms, impacts on farm diversity and path dependency on the Common Agricultural Policy and English approaches. It promotes a 'resilient agriculture' paradigm and utilises social-ecological services, net zero, agroecology and agri-food democracy as the main pathways to achieve this. In doing so, it scrutinises the evolving contextual, political and legal landscape within which devolved and UK agricultural policies are developing from a multilevel governance perspective, examining the implications of WTO law for the UK and its devolved administrations to determine environmental, food and animal welfare standards under the GATT, the SPS and TBT Agreements and financial support schemes under the Agreement on Agriculture. The book assesses the significance of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU and other free trade agreements for standards across the UK and access to markets. From a domestic perspective, challenges to devolution and the stability of the Union are highlighted. Elements of unilateral recentralisation are visible via financing mechanisms, the UK Internal Market Act and the Agriculture Act. The book's interdisciplinary nature makes it of interest to lawyers, political scientists, economists, human geographers and scientists, as well as policymakers, agricultural communities, civil society organisations and think tanks in the devolved administrations, the UK, the EU and beyond.

Mary Dobbs was born on the same day as Peter Sutcliffe, the notorious serial killer known as the Yorkshire Ripper. Instead of murdering adversaries who cross her path, however, she resorts to more subtle acts of revenge. Even so, these actions do not always provide the expected results; hilarity occurs at least as often as vengeance. In her memoir, Mary shares her amusing coming-of-age journey to overcome religious dogma in post-war London during the ever-changing 1950s and 1960s.

From an early age, Mary chronicles how she always fancied herself as a trailblazer who nurtured a strong desire to become the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. A self-proclaimed lover of words, Mary made up many of her own to overcome the boredom of her restricted life, in which she was expected to mimic the behavior of her namesake, the mother of Jesus. Determined to change her life, Mary waits until she is a teenager to dye her hair orange, attend a Beatles concert, discover Soho, and splash in the fountains in Trafalgar Square on New Year's Eve.

"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Inventing My Childhood" offers a witty glimpse into one woman's entertaining journey as she fights to hold onto her identity, discover her passions in life, and ultimately achieve her true destiny.