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Persephone Books reprints Sally Carson's 'forgotten masterpiece'
Persephone Books will publish "a forgotten literary masterpiece", Crooked Cross by Sally Carson, in time for the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, accompanied by a major PR campaign by Midas.
Published to critical acclaim in 1934, and inspired by Carson’s first-hand experiences of pre-war Germany, Crooked Cross was all but forgotten until it was rediscovered by Persephone Books, which reprints neglected fiction and non-fiction, mostly by women.
With a new preface by the Times’ chief art critic Laura Freeman, the title Crooked Cross refers to the shape of the Nazi swastika. Crooked Cross will be published on 17th April 2025 in paperback costing £15. It will be available to buy from Persephone’s website and its bookshop in Bath, as well as selected bookshops.
The publisher described Crooked Cross as "a forgotten literary masterpiece" and "a richly detailed, page-turning and remarkably prescient account of the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany and its devastating impact on the lives of the fictional Kluger family".
Persephone Books founder Nicola Beauman first discovered Crooked Cross when researching pre-Second World War British female writers. “Once she’d tracked down a rare remaining copy she was struck that such an extraordinary and important novel could have been lost to history,” the publisher said. “Persephone Books was determined to bring it back into print and revive Sally Carson’s forgotten legacy.”
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Francesca Beauman, editorial director at Persephone Books, said: “Crooked Cross is everything a Persephone book seeks to be: beautifully written, unputdownable, thought-provoking. To have the opportunity to rescue this literary masterpiece from being entirely lost is an immense privilege. As the lessons history has taught us seem worryingly close to being forgotten, now feels like the right time to share it with the world.”
Persephone Books has appointed Midas to manage the PR campaign for Crooked Cross.
Georgina Moore, deputy managing director at Midas, said: “As avid Persephone Books fans we are thrilled to be working together on the launch campaign for Crooked Cross. This is a novel with both immense historical significance and striking contemporary relevance. We look forward to helping Persephone Books share it with a new generation of readers."
Sylvia "Sally" Carson, was born in 1901 in Surrey. For several years she was a publisher’s reader and taught dance; during this time she frequently went to stay in Bavaria with friends. It was first in Germany and then back in England that she wrote her trilogy of novels including Crooked Cross in 1934, which was performed as a play in Birmingham and later in London. In 1938 she married Eric Humphries who ran the Bradford works of the publisher Lund Humphries, founded by his father. She died in 1941.
