Cover Stories: Arts Council England; Elizabeth Gaskell; Baedeker guidebooks

* For many independent publishers, the end of 2007 brought bad news from Arts Council England. Their grants are due to be cut, although there is still time for a re-think. Dedalus, which publishes a mix of innovative translated works and offbeat English-language fiction, stands to lose c. £25,000, "which will just about do us", says publisher Eric Lane, who now plans to sue ACE for ignoring its own guidelines. Arcadia, winner last year of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize with The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa, may lose some 25 per cent of its grant, while poetry publisher Anvil Press will lose 23 per cent in 2008-9. Peter Jay, who founded the company 40 years ago, fears that Anvil will not survive as it is. But Tindal Street, riding high on the success of Catherine O'Flynn's Costa-winning What Was Lost, enjoys an increase. While some publishers believe that the Government is diverting funds towards the escalating cost of the Olympics, most feel that the cuts reflect a more hard-nosed business approach from a body looking for "value for money".

* The nation having been glued to the TV adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford novels, Vintage has announced a new edition of North and South. Gaskell biographer and much-loved editor Jenny Uglow (who received an OBE in the New Year's Honours) has been commissioned to write the introduction.

* This week, 180 years after their debut, the celebrated Baedeker guidebooks are making a comeback in the UK. The ultimate guidebook for the Victorian tourist – they appear in works by Forster, Christie and Eliot – Baedekers ceased to be sold here five years ago. Now 12 titles, including Andalucia, Venice, New York and London, have re-appeared, in full colour, using 3D images. Karl Baedeker, the son of an Essen printer, founded the company, which was revived in 1948 and is still German-owned.