Barry Winkleman is a British former publishing executive, born in May 1939 in Islington, London, best known professionally as the Publishing Director of The Times and Managing Director of Times Books who created and oversaw the first two editions of The Times Atlas of World History in 1978. That landmark reference work sold over two million copies worldwide and is confirmed by Wikipedia as his primary professional achievement. He is aged 86 as of 2026, and is widely recognised by the British public as the father of broadcaster Claudia Winkleman and actress Sophie Winkleman, the latter of whom is married to Lord Frederick Windsor. His net worth is not publicly confirmed.
TL;DR
- Barry Winkleman, British former publisher and Managing Director of Times Books, known for creating The Times Atlas of World History (1978), which sold over two million copies worldwide.
- Publishing Director of The Times and editorial director of Times Atlases; collaborated with Oxford historian Geoffrey Barraclough and a team of 100 leading historians.
- Career in publishing spanned from the 1960s through the 1990s; now retired and living privately in London.
- Net worth not publicly confirmed; income derived from a long career in senior publishing and property management interests.
- First marriage to journalist Eve Pollard (1968 to 1975), daughter Claudia Winkleman; second marriage to children’s author Cindy Black (1979 to present), daughter Sophie Winkleman.
Quick Bio
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Barry Winkleman |
| Known As | Barry Winkleman |
| Date of Birth | May 1939 |
| Age | 86 years old (as of 2026) |
| Birthplace | Islington, London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Ethnicity | Jewish heritage (publicly acknowledged by family) |
| Religion | Atheist (as noted in Sophie Winkleman’s public comments) |
| Education | Not publicly disclosed |
| Profession | Publisher, Editor, Author (retired) |
| Active Since | Circa 1960s (retired) |
| Employer / Organisation | Times Books Limited (Managing Director); Times Newspapers Ltd (Publishing Director) |
| Total Following | Not applicable (no public social media presence) |
| Height | Not publicly disclosed |
| Weight | Not publicly disclosed |
| Relationship Status | Married to Cindy Black (since 1979) |
| Net Worth | Not publicly confirmed |
Who is Barry Winkleman?
Barry Winkleman is a British former publisher and the Managing Director of Times Books who created The Times Atlas of World History in 1978, one of the most authoritative historical reference works of the 20th century.
Winkleman spent his career in the reference and educational publishing sector, building a professional legacy rooted in precision, collaboration, and intellectual ambition rather than public visibility. His single most consequential project, The Times Atlas of World History, was a landmark work that assembled some 100 leading historians under the academic editorship of Geoffrey Barraclough, Chichele Professor of Modern History at Oxford University. The atlas mapped global civilisations, migration patterns, political boundaries, and historical timelines across approximately 600 colour plates spanning 3000 BCE to 1975. It sold more than two million copies worldwide and has been revised through nine editions, with the most recent published in 2015.
Beyond the atlas, Winkleman is widely known in Britain as the father of two of the country’s most recognisable public women: broadcaster Claudia Winkleman, known for presenting Strictly Come Dancing and The Traitors, and actress Sophie Winkleman, known professionally as Lady Frederick Windsor following her 2009 marriage to Lord Frederick Windsor, son of Prince Michael of Kent. Through Sophie, Barry Winkleman has a familial connection to the British royal family by marriage.
Early Life and Background
Childhood and Family
Barry Winkleman was born in May 1939 in Islington, London, into a British Jewish family; his parents were Leonard Winkleman and Fanny Goldstein, whose names appear in public family records.
Islington in 1939 was a mixed working-class and middle-class district of inner London, shaped during Winkleman’s childhood by the Second World War and the decades of post-war reconstruction that followed. Growing up in that environment gave his generation a particularly practical orientation toward work, knowledge, and self-sufficiency. His Jewish heritage, acknowledged by both his daughters in public interviews and biographical profiles, placed him within a family tradition that valued education, cultural literacy, and intellectual engagement. Sophie Winkleman has described her father as being of Jewish heritage but an atheist, characterising the family’s early circumstances as modestly middle-class rather than elite.
Education
Barry Winkleman’s formal educational background has not been publicly confirmed; many publishers of his era entered the industry through apprenticeships or junior editorial roles rather than university pathways.
His career trajectory, beginning in publishing in the 1960s and advancing to Managing Director of a Times Newspapers subsidiary, reflects sustained professional development built through experience. The intellectual demands of his best-known project, requiring coordination across cartography, history, design, and editorial management at the highest academic level, point to a deeply informed background in the humanities, though no specific university or degree has been publicly attributed to him.
Career Journey
Before Fame
Winkleman entered the British publishing industry during the 1960s, a period when London’s major publishing houses wielded genuine cultural authority and educational reference publishing was expanding rapidly in response to post-war demand.
The mid-20th century was a formative period for reference publishing in Britain. Encyclopedias, atlases, and educational books were in high demand as schools, libraries, and households sought reliable, visually organised knowledge in an era before digital databases. Winkleman’s early career built the editorial judgment and project management skills necessary to handle complex, multi-contributor reference works. He progressed through the industry to senior roles at Times Newspapers Ltd, the parent company of The Times newspaper, eventually becoming Publishing Director of The Times and Managing Director of Times Books Limited, the newspaper’s publishing subsidiary.
How Barry Winkleman Got Started
Winkleman’s most significant career milestone began in the mid-1970s when, as Publishing Director of The Times, he conceived and initiated what would become The Times Atlas of World History, published in 1978.
The project required assembling a team of approximately 100 leading historians from around the world, working under the academic editorship of Geoffrey Barraclough, then Chichele Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. Winkleman’s role extended well beyond production management: as the originator of the concept, he defined the atlas’s editorial ambition, its visual approach to historical mapping, and its commitment to depicting world history as a dynamic process of movement, change, and civilisational interaction rather than a collection of political dates and battles. The stated aim, as recorded in the atlas itself, was to describe the major processes and events of world history across a broad canvas, giving a dynamic view of population migrations, economic developments, wars, and the spread of religions and political ideologies.
Breakthrough Moment
The publication of the first edition of The Times Atlas of World History in 1978 was the defining achievement of Winkleman’s career, establishing a reference standard that sold over two million copies and generated multiple revised editions over the following four decades.
The atlas was first published by Times Books Limited as a subsidiary of Times Newspapers Ltd. Its success transformed it into a benchmark educational resource used in schools, universities, and public libraries internationally. Winkleman oversaw both the first and second editions before the editorship passed to Norman Stone, then Geoffrey Parker, and subsequently Richard Overy for the fifth through ninth editions. The most recent edition, published in 2015 under the revised title The Times Complete History of the World, reflects the enduring relevance of the framework Winkleman established in 1978. The atlas has since been published by Collins Bartholomew, a subsidiary of HarperCollins.
Career Today
Barry Winkleman is retired from professional publishing as of the mid-2020s and maintains no public or social media profile, living privately in London.
Beyond the Times Atlas project, his publishing record includes travel maps and reference guides covering regions including Israel, Jordan, the West Indies, and Macedonia, reflecting an interest in geographic storytelling that complemented his historical atlas work. He has also been noted in public records as a director of property management companies in London, including interests connected to the Beaufort Mansions area. A rare public appearance on 9 December 2025 saw him photographed at Windsor Castle accompanying his daughter Claudia as she received her MBE from King Charles III. Observers noted he appeared composed and deliberately low-key, consistent with his lifelong preference for privacy.
Reporting Style and Beat
As a publisher rather than a journalist or broadcaster, Winkleman’s professional output was defined by his editorial philosophy: prioritising factual accuracy, long-term educational value, and authoritative visual presentation over commercial short-termism.
His approach to reference publishing valued depth and reliability above popular appeal. The Times Atlas project required balancing the academic rigour demanded by professional historians with the visual clarity needed for a general readership, a tension Winkleman resolved by separating editorial and cartographic responsibilities while maintaining a unified intellectual vision. He also arranged Disney Movie Favorites for recorder, a music education project for young learners, indicating a broader interest in accessible, educational content across disciplines. His publishing philosophy influenced the standards of the teams he led and contributed to the broader tradition of British reference publishing in the post-war era.
Social Media Presence
Barry Winkleman has no public social media presence and has not appeared on any publicly confirmed digital platform throughout his retirement.
| Platform | Presence | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Not applicable | No confirmed account | |
| X (Twitter) | Not applicable | No confirmed account; maintains complete privacy in retirement |
Net Worth and Income Streams
Barry Winkleman’s net worth has not been publicly confirmed; no figure has been released by him or attributable to credible sources, though his long senior publishing career and property management interests suggest financial stability.
As Managing Director of Times Books and Publishing Director of The Times, Winkleman held senior executive positions within Times Newspapers Ltd, which is owned by News UK and associated with Rupert Murdoch’s media interests. Senior publishing executives of that era and stature would have commanded substantial salaries and, potentially, royalty or rights income from major reference titles. His property management interests in London, publicly documented through company director records, represent a further asset base. His daughter Sophie Winkleman has described the family’s background as modestly middle-class rather than wealthy, contextualising his professional success within the constraints of a career in educational rather than commercial publishing.
| Income Stream | Estimated Contribution | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Publishing career (Times Books / Times Newspapers) | Primary historical income | Managing Director and Publishing Director roles over several decades; exact salary not confirmed |
| Property management | Secondary asset base | Documented director of London property management companies including interests in the Beaufort Mansions area |
| Reference publishing rights | Not publicly confirmed | Times Atlas sold 2 million+ copies; any royalty arrangements are not in the public record |
Physical Appearance
Height and Body Stats
Barry Winkleman’s physical measurements have not been publicly confirmed in any verified source.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Height | Not publicly disclosed |
| Weight | Not publicly disclosed |
| Eye Colour | Not publicly disclosed |
| Hair Colour | Not publicly disclosed |
Personal Life
Relationships
Barry Winkleman married journalist Eve Pollard in 1968 at Hendon, north London; the marriage ended in divorce in 1975, and he subsequently married children’s author Cindy Black in 1979 in Camden, London.
Eve Pollard went on to become one of Fleet Street’s most prominent editors, serving as editor of the Sunday Mirror and the Sunday Express, and is often described as one of the first women to edit a major British national newspaper. At the time of their marriage, both Winkleman and Pollard were building careers connected to media and communication: he in books, she in journalism. Their divorce in 1975, when their daughter Claudia was three years old, was followed by Pollard’s remarriage in 1979 to Nicholas Lloyd, former editor of the Daily Express. Winkleman also remarried in 1979, to Cindy Black, who is known as an advertising copywriter and children’s book author.
Family
Barry Winkleman has two daughters from his two marriages: Claudia Winkleman, born 15 January 1972, from his first marriage to Eve Pollard; and Sophie Winkleman, born 5 August 1980 in Primrose Hill, London, from his second marriage to Cindy Black.
Claudia Winkleman is one of Britain’s most recognised television presenters, known for Strictly Come Dancing, The Traitors, and The Piano, and received her MBE from King Charles III at Windsor Castle on 9 December 2025, at which her father Barry was present. Sophie Winkleman is a British actress known for roles in Peep Show, Two and a Half Men, Sanditon, and the Disney adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Sophie married Lord Frederick Windsor at Hampton Court Palace on 12 September 2009; Lord Frederick is the son of Prince Michael of Kent and a second cousin to King Charles III. The couple have two daughters, Maud Windsor and Isabella Windsor. Sophie has described her half-sister Claudia and herself as having experienced “very separate lives” during their formative years due to the eleven-year age gap and their different households. The family lives in Fulham and London.
Achievements and Milestones
- Conceived and created The Times Atlas of World History as Publishing Director of The Times (1978), assembling a team of approximately 100 leading historians under Geoffrey Barraclough of Oxford University.
- Served as Managing Director of Times Books Limited and editorial director of Times Atlases, overseeing the first and second editions of the atlas.
- The Times Atlas of World History sold over two million copies worldwide, spanning 600 maps covering 3000 BCE to 1975.
- Published travel reference guides covering Israel, Jordan, the West Indies, and Macedonia.
- Arranged Disney Movie Favorites for recorder as a music education project for young learners.
- Attended Windsor Castle on 9 December 2025 as his daughter Claudia received her MBE from King Charles III, one of his rare confirmed public appearances in retirement.
- Father of Claudia Winkleman (MBE, BBC presenter) and Sophie Winkleman (actress, Lady Frederick Windsor); through Sophie, has a familial connection to the extended British royal family.
- Paternal grandfather of Maud Windsor and Isabella Windsor, daughters of Lord Frederick Windsor and Sophie Winkleman.
Interesting Facts About Barry Winkleman
- The Times Atlas of World History, which Winkleman created in 1978, has been revised and reprinted nine times; the ninth and most recent edition was published in 2015 under the title The Times Complete History of the World.
- His two daughters, Claudia and Sophie, are half-sisters who share the same father but have different mothers and grew up in separate households, with Sophie noting they had “very separate lives” during childhood.
- Winkleman’s religion is atheism, according to public biographical profiles of his daughter Sophie, despite his Jewish heritage, making him a secular figure within a culturally Jewish family tradition.
- He married both times in London boroughs: his first marriage to Eve Pollard took place at Hendon in north London in 1968, and his second marriage to Cindy Black took place in Camden in 1979.
- Through Sophie’s marriage to Lord Frederick Windsor, Winkleman is the paternal grandfather of two children who carry the Windsor surname: Maud Windsor and Isabella Windsor.
- He made a publicly noted appearance at Windsor Castle in December 2025 for Claudia’s MBE investiture, one of the very few occasions he has been photographed at a formal public event alongside his family.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Barry Winkleman?
Barry Winkleman is a British former publisher and Managing Director of Times Books who created The Times Atlas of World History in 1978. He is the father of broadcaster Claudia Winkleman and actress Sophie Winkleman.
How old is Barry Winkleman?
Barry Winkleman was born in May 1939 in Islington, London, making him 86 years old as of 2026.
What is Barry Winkleman famous for professionally?
He is best known for creating The Times Atlas of World History in 1978 while serving as Publishing Director of The Times and Managing Director of Times Books. The atlas sold over two million copies worldwide.
Is Barry Winkleman related to the royal family?
Yes, by marriage. His daughter Sophie Winkleman married Lord Frederick Windsor, son of Prince Michael of Kent, at Hampton Court Palace in September 2009, connecting Winkleman to the extended British royal family.
Who were Barry Winkleman’s wives?
Barry Winkleman married journalist Eve Pollard in 1968; they divorced in 1975. He then married children’s author Cindy Black in 1979, and they remain together. Claudia Winkleman is his daughter from his first marriage and Sophie Winkleman from his second.
