The Times World Atlas: Behind the Scenes

Sir Ranulph Fiennes says it is, “the ultimate starting point for planning any adventure or expedition.”

Paul Theroux says it has been an essential part of his travelling life for many years. And it recently caused an almighty controversy with its depiction of Greenland’s shrinking ice cap.

It’s The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, a six-kilogram bruiser of a book that maps the world in the most intimate of detail. Publishing manager Jethro Lennox tells Peter Moore why it still matters.

What is the role of an atlas like this? Who do you think uses it and why?

It is used throughout the world by a variety of people with geographical interests, from government organisations to scientists and students to people who have a general interest in the world. It’s an excellent reference resource and a good place for finding where places are in the world. Now that we’re in the 13th edition of the atlas, every year we’ve been trying to put more features in and more detail and it has really built up into a fantastic resource.

It’s also a great lifetime gift. A lot of people buy it as a wedding present or a retirement gift. It’s amazing the number of people who like an atlas. You don’t have to be a map geek.

The atlas is more than just maps. What are some of the other areas that it covers?

There are three parts of the atlas. There’s a thematic section up the front covering things like earthquakes, volcanoes, population, economy and climate, as well as wild extremes like the highest mountains and largest islands.

Then the maps – they speak for themselves.

Then you’ve got the index section with over 220,000 place names, which includes the actual names on the map, but we’ve also got alternative names. Former names that people might know – you’ll get a country like Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe, or cities like Bombay, which is now Mumbai – that have changed their names, we’ll still have some of the former names in the index.