Midas appointed to manage PR for timely novel republished to mark 80th anniversary of the end of WWII
Monday 16 December 2024. London. Persephone Books, which reprints neglected fiction and non-fiction, mostly by women, is set to publish a forgotten literary masterpiece, Crooked Cross by Sally Carson, in time for the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII, with a PR campaign by Midas.
Published to critical acclaim in 1934, and inspired by Sally Carson’s first-hand experiences of pre-WWII Germany, Crooked Cross was all but forgotten until it was rediscovered by Persephone Books.
Described when it was first published as ‘a novel that everybody should read – and remember’, Crooked Cross is 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-WWII British women 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. Persephone Books was determined to bring it back into print and revive Sally Carson’s forgotten legacy.
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 MD at Midas, added: ‘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.’
At its heart a love story, and rich with historical detail, Crooked Cross is perfect for fans of Sarah Winman, Kate Grenville, Joanna Quinn, Alice Winn, and Dorothy Whipple.
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 is the 152nd book to be published by Persephone Books.
For all publicity enquiries, please contact Midas:
Edwina Boyd-Gibbins | edwina.boyd-gibbins@midas-group.com | +44 (0)20 7361 7860
Notes to Editors
Credit: Crooked Cross by Sally Carson will be published on 17 April 2025 (Persephone Books, paperback, £15).
Crooked Cross will be available to buy from www.persephonebooks.co.uk/, the Persephone bookshop in Bath, and selected bookshops.
Images can be found here.
About Sally Carson
Sylvia ‘Sally’ Carson, the youngest of three sisters, was born in 1901 in Surrey and brought up by her widowed mother in Dorset, where she went to school. 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, Crooked Cross (1934), The Prisoner (1936) and A Traveller Came By (1938). Crooked Cross 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. They had twins, a son and a daughter, and then another daughter, but in June 1941 Sally Carson died of breast cancer.
About Persephone Books:
Persephone Books reprints neglected fiction and non-fiction, mostly by women writers and mostly dating from the mid-twentieth century. Each title has a grey jacket and an endpaper taken from a textile designed around the time the book was written. Persephone Books was founded in 1999 and is now based in Bath. It currently has a total of 151 titles in print spanning novels, short stories, diaries, memoirs, poetry, gardening books and cookery books. Crooked Cross will be Persephone Books’ 152nd title.
Website: https://persephonebooks.co.uk/ | Instagram: @persephonebooks
Facebook: www.facebook.com/persephonebooks | TikTok: @persephonebooks_
