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The memoirs and private papers of Women’s Land Army writer E M Barraud are being brought to the stage in a new solo production, devised and performed by Cambridgeshire actor and writer Jane Bower.
Call Me John tells the story of Enid Mary Barraud, who signed up to contribute to the government’s Mass Observation project in 1937. Two years later, she exchanged her work as a London insurance clerk for agricultural labour during the Second World War, and went on to become an extraordinarily perceptive chronicler of rural life.
Combining Barraud’s own wordsmithery with sounds, images, and newly gathered oral history, the production will premiere publicly at Downing Place Church, Cambridge, at 7.30pm on Thursday 9 July 2026.
The play will also receive a special first presentation at Eversdens Village Hall on at 7:30pm on Wednesday 1 July, open to local residents, reviewers, and members of Barraud’s family.
Barraud joined the Women’s Land Army as an original wartime volunteer and worked in Cambridgeshire. Her experiences formed the basis of her book Set My Hand Upon the Plough, published in 1946 and described at the time as the first serious account of working life in the Land Army written by an original volunteer.
Far from presenting rural life as a picturesque wartime interlude, Barraud wrote about the physical realities of agricultural labour, the education of rural children, environmental damage, farming practice, and the inadequacies of romanticised writing about the countryside.
She was also a contributor to The Land Girl, the official magazine serving members of the Women’s Land Army. Her work documented both the hardship of agricultural service and the lasting fellowship created among Land Girls.
Jane Bower’s work on the production took eighteen months, and included studying Barraud’s memoirs and private papers, visiting her homes, speaking with her relatives, and recording the memories of local people who still remember her with great affection.
Book your place HERE
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