我试着结合上下文帮你分析一下：

Besides, it was hard to produce a decent meal, let alone anything impressive, when all you had was a gas ring in one corner of your room and water down the hall; and when the problem wasn’t just to assemble passable ingredients, but to find somewhere to put down the fork while you took the lid off the saucepan. So was born “Cooking in a Bedsitter” (1961), a bible for the cookery-challenged for decades afterwards, with its cheery insistence that yes, you could cook cabbage, if you chucked in a crust of bread to stop the smell getting into the curtains; and yes, you could knock up a delicious little dinner à deux out of packets and tins, as long as you got rid of the evidence.

前文说了各种情况，就这样，这本书诞生了。这个 so，我没太留意本站专家老师们怎么解释的。个人倾向于按连词（或者称之副词连词）理解，和 and, but, for (因为）, or, yet 等连词类似，起到承上启下作用：

《牛津高阶英汉双解词典》（第九版）列在连词项下：

used to introduce the next part of a story （引出下文）
So after shouting and screaming for an hour she walked out in tears.
就这样，又嚷又叫了一个小时后，她流着泪走了出来。

《韦氏高阶英汉双解词典》（第九版）也是列在连词项下：

— used in speech to introduce a statement or question那么，就这样（用于口语，引出下文）
So here we are.
就这样我们到了。
So, we meet at last!
就这样，我们终于见面了。
So, as I was saying, the car is used but in good condition.
那么如我刚才所讲，这辆车虽是旧的，但车况良好。
So, how did the test go?
那么，测试进展如何？

所以，你的这个问题不是 so 引起的倒装句，也不是 so...that 从句（后文再说 that）倒装。但也与 so 有关，如果没有 so，was 就直接位于句首了：was born “Cooking in a Bedsitter” (1961)，……管见：之所以这样倒装，是为了让“Cooking in a Bedsitter”这本书后面的各种成分离得更近。

a bible for the cookery-challenged for decades afterwards（同位语）；

with its cheery insistence ...介词短语作“Cooking in a Bedsitter”的定语；

that 引导两个同位语从句，中心词是 insistence。所以你的第二个分析没问题；

至于分号连接两个并列从句时，按我阅读经验，分号后的连词可用可不用。

另见张道真《英语语法大全》下册 P420 ，

（分号）用在两个并列从句或两个短语之间（这时也可用逗号，但对比性较弱）：

We know that country life is more quiet than city life; that it is more healthful; that it is happier.

To work eight hours; to sleep eight hours; to do other things eight hours—that is the best way for man.

That depends upon who do it; how they do it; and when.