Privacy Policy

Last updated: 5 September 2026

Historical Bookshelf respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information.

This Privacy Policy explains how personal information may be collected, used, stored and disclosed when you visit or interact with Historical Bookshelf at https://www.historicalbookshelf.com/.

Historical Bookshelf is available to visitors in the United Kingdom, United States and other countries. Additional privacy rights may apply depending on where you live.

1. Who we are

Historical Bookshelf is a book-discovery website providing information about historical fiction, history books, authors, book series, historical people, historical periods, wars, battles and events.

Historical Bookshelf is operated by Andrew Ashton trading as Historical Bookshelf. Andrew Ashton is the controller responsible for personal information processed through this website.

Controller: Andrew Ashton
Trading name: Historical Bookshelf
Postal address: 57 Kimberley Road, Penylan, Cardiff, CF23 5DL, United Kingdom
Email: hello@historicalbookshelf.com
Website: https://www.historicalbookshelf.com/

References in this policy to “Historical Bookshelf”, “we”, “us” or “our” mean Andrew Ashton trading as Historical Bookshelf.

2. Information we collect

We collect only information reasonably necessary to operate, secure and improve Historical Bookshelf, communicate with visitors and administer our website and affiliate relationships.

2.1 Information you provide

You may provide information when you:

• contact us by email or through a contact form;
• subscribe to a newsletter;
• send feedback, corrections or suggestions;
• report a technical problem;
• make a privacy request; or
• otherwise communicate with us.

This may include your name, email address, the contents of your message, newsletter preferences, consent records and any other information you voluntarily provide.

Please do not send sensitive personal information, financial credentials or identity documents unless we specifically request them for a legitimate purpose.

2.2 Information collected automatically

When you visit Historical Bookshelf, our hosting, security and technical systems may process information including:

• your Internet Protocol (IP) address;
• browser type and version;
• device and operating-system information;
• language and time-zone settings;
• referring website or page;
• pages viewed and links followed;
• date, time and duration of visits;
• approximate country or region;
• cookie and consent preferences;
• HTTP request and response information;
• security and firewall information; and
• error and diagnostic information.

This information may appear in server logs, security logs, content-delivery logs or analytics reports.

2.3 Newsletter information

If Historical Bookshelf offers a newsletter and you subscribe, we may process:

• your email address;
• your name, if supplied;
• the date and method of subscription;
• consent records;
• delivery and bounce information;
• unsubscribe status; and
• newsletter engagement information where enabled and permitted by law.

You may unsubscribe at any time using the unsubscribe link contained in an email or by contacting us.

2.4 Affiliate and referral information

Historical Bookshelf contains links to third-party booksellers and may participate in affiliate programmes, including the Amazon Associates Programme and programmes operated by other retailers or affiliate networks.

When you follow an affiliate link, the retailer or affiliate network may record that the visit originated from Historical Bookshelf.

Reports supplied to us may contain information such as:

• referral or transaction identifiers;
• dates of clicks or qualifying transactions;
• products or product categories;
• qualifying purchase values; and
• commissions attributed to Historical Bookshelf.

We do not receive your retailer password, complete payment-card information or other payment credentials.

The retailer is independently responsible for information it collects when you visit its website, create an account or make a purchase.

As an Amazon Associate, Historical Bookshelf earns from qualifying purchases.

3. How we use personal information

We may use personal information to:

• provide and operate the website;
• respond to enquiries, corrections and feedback;
• provide requested website functions;
• deliver newsletters requested by subscribers;
• manage subscription and unsubscribe requests;
• remember privacy and cookie choices;
• protect the website against spam, fraud, attacks and misuse;
• investigate security incidents;
• diagnose technical problems;
• monitor website availability and performance;
• understand how visitors use the website;
• improve navigation, content and book discovery;
• measure affiliate-link performance;
• administer affiliate relationships;
• maintain accounting, tax and business records;
• establish, exercise or defend legal claims;
• comply with legal obligations; and
• protect our legal rights and the security of the website.

We do not use personal information to make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects solely through automated processing.

4. Lawful bases for processing

Where the UK General Data Protection Regulation, EU General Data Protection Regulation or similar privacy legislation applies, we rely on one or more lawful bases.

4.1 Consent

We may rely on consent where you:

• subscribe to marketing or newsletter emails;
• accept non-essential cookies or similar technologies where consent is required;
• permit optional tracking technologies; or
• ask us to use information for another optional purpose.

You may withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect processing that was lawful before consent was withdrawn.

4.2 Legitimate interests

We may process information where necessary for our legitimate interests, including:

• operating and improving Historical Bookshelf;
• responding to ordinary enquiries;
• securing the website;
• preventing fraud and misuse;
• diagnosing technical problems;
• maintaining business records;
• administering affiliate relationships; and
• understanding the general performance of our content.

We consider the impact on visitors before relying on legitimate interests.

4.3 Contract and pre-contractual steps

We may process information where necessary to provide something you have requested or to take steps at your request before entering into an agreement.

4.4 Legal obligations

We may process or retain information where necessary to comply with legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or court requirements.

4.5 Legal claims

We may process information where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims or protect the rights, safety and security of Historical Bookshelf, our visitors or others.

5. Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small pieces of information stored on or accessed from your device. Similar storage and access technologies may include local storage, tracking pixels, tags, scripts, device identifiers and comparable technologies.

The rules that apply depend on what a technology does and why it is used. Some technologies may be used without consent where a legal exception applies. Other technologies require consent before they are used.

5.1 Strictly necessary and communications technologies

Technologies may be used where they are necessary to:

• deliver communications over a network;
• provide website security;
• prevent or detect fraud or technical faults;
• balance network traffic;
• authenticate authorised users;
• maintain administrative sessions;
• remember privacy choices; or
• provide functions specifically requested by a visitor.

Where a technology falls within an applicable legal exception, consent may not be required. We will still provide appropriate information about its use.

5.2 Preference and appearance technologies

Some technologies may remember or apply choices about how the website appears or functions, such as display or interface preferences.

Where the applicable legal exception is used, we will provide clear information and a simple, free way to object where required by law. Otherwise, we will obtain consent where required.

5.3 Analytics and statistical information

We may use analytics to understand matters such as:

• how many people visit Historical Bookshelf;
• which pages are viewed;
• how visitors reach the site;
• general device and browser information;
• approximate visitor location;
• user journeys through the website;
• website errors; and
• website performance.

Where analytics are used solely to produce aggregate statistical information about use of the website for the purpose of improving Historical Bookshelf, we may rely on an applicable statistical-purpose exception where its requirements are met. This includes providing clear information and a simple, free means of objecting where required.

If analytics or tracking go beyond an applicable exception, including where they are used to identify, profile or track individual visitors, we will obtain consent before using them where the law requires it.

5.4 Affiliate technologies

Retailers and affiliate networks may use cookies or other identifiers to determine whether a visit or purchase resulted from an affiliate link.

Some affiliate tracking takes place after you leave Historical Bookshelf and visit a retailer’s website. Those technologies are controlled by the retailer or affiliate network and are governed by its own privacy and cookie policies.

Where affiliate or advertising-related tracking technology operates directly on Historical Bookshelf and consent is legally required, it will not be activated before consent has been obtained.

5.5 Embedded and social-media technologies

Pages may contain content or functionality supplied by third parties. Depending on how an embed or social-media feature is configured, the provider may attempt to store or access information on your device.

Where consent is required, we will seek consent before activating the relevant non-essential technology. We may instead use privacy-enhanced embeds, just-in-time controls or ordinary external links where appropriate.

The server-to-server integrations we may use to publish Historical Bookshelf content to our own Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook accounts do not, by themselves, place cookies on visitors’ devices.

5.6 Your choices about cookies and similar technologies

The Cookie information link in the website footer brings you to this section.

Where a consent or objection control is required for technologies used on Historical Bookshelf, we will make an appropriate control available on the website. You can also use your browser settings to block or delete cookies and other stored information, although blocking some technologies may affect website functionality.

We periodically review the storage and access technologies used by Historical Bookshelf. If our use changes materially, we will update this policy and, where required, request fresh consent or provide a new means of objecting.

6. Newsletters and direct marketing

We send newsletter or promotional emails only where:

• you have requested them;
• you have provided valid consent; or
• another lawful basis or legally permitted exception applies.

Every marketing email will include a method of unsubscribing.

After you unsubscribe, we may retain a limited suppression record containing your email address and unsubscribe status so that we can respect your request and avoid accidentally adding the address to the mailing list again.

We do not sell newsletter lists or email addresses.

7. Affiliate links

Historical Bookshelf participates in affiliate programmes.

We may receive a commission when you follow an eligible link and make a qualifying purchase, at no additional cost to you.

Affiliate relationships do not determine the editorial content of Historical Bookshelf.

When you leave Historical Bookshelf:

• the destination website’s terms apply;
• the destination website controls its own cookies;
• the retailer processes purchase and payment information; and
• the retailer’s privacy policy governs its collection and use of personal information.

Historical Bookshelf does not process or store your retailer payment-card information.

8. Social media

Historical Bookshelf may maintain accounts on social-media and content-discovery platforms including Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook.

We may use these services to publish information about books, authors, historical people, periods and other Historical Bookshelf content.

When you interact with Historical Bookshelf through a social-media service, the operator of that platform may independently collect and process information about you. This can include:

• your social-media account information;
• reactions, comments, saves and shares;
• messages sent through the platform;
• information about content you view or interact with;
• device and usage information; and
• information used by the platform for analytics or advertising.

These services operate under their own terms and privacy policies. Historical Bookshelf does not control how a third-party social-media platform independently processes information about its users.

9. Social-media publishing and analytics integrations

Historical Bookshelf may use application programming interfaces (APIs) or authorised platform integrations to publish content to our own social-media accounts and obtain information about the performance of that content.

For example, an integration may allow Historical Bookshelf to:

• create or manage Pinterest boards;
• publish Pins or other social-media posts;
• schedule approved content;
• retrieve identifiers for published posts;
• obtain aggregated performance statistics;
• measure impressions, saves, engagement or outbound clicks; and
• manage our own Historical Bookshelf social-media accounts.

These integrations are used for the administration of Historical Bookshelf’s own accounts.

We do not use these integrations to access private social-media accounts belonging to visitors or to provide social-media account access to third parties.

Information received through a platform API is handled in accordance with this Privacy Policy and the requirements applicable to the relevant platform.

10. How we disclose information

We may disclose information to service providers where reasonably necessary to operate Historical Bookshelf.

10.1 Hosting and infrastructure providers

Hosting, domain, database, backup and infrastructure providers may process technical information necessary to operate the website.

10.2 Security and content-delivery providers

Security and content-delivery services, including services such as Cloudflare, may process IP addresses, requests, device information and security events to deliver content and protect the website.

10.3 Email and newsletter providers

An email or newsletter provider may process subscriber information and email-delivery records on our behalf.

10.4 Analytics providers

Where enabled, analytics providers may process website-usage information according to our instructions, the applicable legal basis and any choices available to you.

10.5 Retailers and affiliate networks

When you follow an affiliate link, referral information may be collected by or disclosed to the relevant retailer or affiliate network.

10.6 Social-media services

When Historical Bookshelf publishes or interacts through platforms such as Pinterest, Instagram or Facebook, information may be processed by those platforms in accordance with their respective privacy policies.

10.7 Professional advisers and contractors

We may disclose information to developers, technical consultants, accountants, insurers, legal advisers and other professional providers where reasonably necessary.

10.8 Legal and regulatory recipients

We may disclose information where reasonably necessary to:

• comply with law or legal process;
• respond to a valid request from a court, regulator or public authority;
• investigate fraud, abuse or security threats;
• protect legal rights; or
• protect the safety of visitors or others.

10.9 Business transfers

If ownership or operation of Historical Bookshelf changes, relevant information may be transferred as part of a sale, merger, reorganisation or transfer of website assets, subject to applicable privacy requirements.

11. Sale and sharing of personal information

Historical Bookshelf does not sell personal information for money.

We do not sell email addresses or newsletter subscriber lists.

We do not knowingly disclose personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising.

Third-party services may independently collect information when you visit or interact with their websites or platforms.

If our practices change in a way that creates a legal right to opt out of a sale, sharing, targeted advertising or similar processing, we will update this policy and provide any legally required opt-out mechanism.

12. International transfers

Historical Bookshelf is accessible internationally, and some service providers may process information outside the country in which you live.

Where privacy law requires safeguards for an international transfer, we may rely on:

• an adequacy decision or regulation;
• the UK International Data Transfer Agreement;
• the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses;
• EU Standard Contractual Clauses;
• contractual, technical and organisational safeguards; or
• another legally recognised transfer mechanism.

Information may also be processed in countries where retailers, affiliate networks or social-media platforms operate independently from Historical Bookshelf.

13. Data retention

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and to satisfy appropriate legal, accounting, security and operational requirements.

Retention may include:

• contact enquiries until resolved and for a reasonable period afterwards;
• newsletter information while you remain subscribed;
• suppression records where needed to honour unsubscribe requests;
• cookie-consent or objection records where needed to demonstrate and respect your choices;
• server and security logs according to operational and security requirements;
• affiliate and financial records for required accounting and tax periods;
• privacy-request records where necessary to demonstrate compliance;
• information relevant to a legal dispute until the matter and applicable limitation periods have ended; and
• backup copies until deleted or overwritten through the normal backup cycle.

We may retain anonymised or aggregated information where it can no longer reasonably identify an individual.

14. Data security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures intended to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, disclosure and destruction.

Measures may include:

• encrypted HTTPS connections;
• firewalls and traffic filtering;
• restricted administrative access;
• authentication controls;
• security monitoring;
• software updates;
• malware protection;
• backups; and
• access controls for service providers.

No website, transmission method or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

15. Your privacy rights

Your rights depend on where you live, the laws that apply and the reasons for which your information is processed. Some rights are subject to legal exceptions.

15.1 United Kingdom and European Economic Area

Where applicable, you may have the right to:

• be informed about how personal information is used;
• request access to your personal information;
• request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;
• request deletion of personal information;
• request restriction of processing;
• object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• object to direct marketing;
• receive certain information in a portable format;
• withdraw consent; and
• exercise rights relating to certain automated decisions.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, you may object to processing on grounds relating to your particular circumstances.

You have an absolute right to object to the use of personal information for direct marketing.

15.2 United States

Depending on your state of residence and whether the relevant law applies to Historical Bookshelf, you may have rights including the right to:

• know or confirm whether personal information is processed;
• request access;
• request correction;
• request deletion;
• obtain a portable copy of certain information;
• obtain information about categories of information collected or disclosed;
• opt out of certain sales or sharing;
• opt out of targeted advertising;
• opt out of certain profiling or automated decisions;
• appeal certain refusals of privacy requests; and
• exercise privacy rights without unlawful discrimination.

Historical Bookshelf does not sell personal information for money.

15.3 Canada

Where applicable Canadian privacy legislation applies, you may have rights to:

• request access to personal information;
• request correction of inaccurate information;
• withdraw consent, subject to legal or contractual restrictions;
• ask how information has been used or disclosed; and
• complain to the relevant privacy authority.

15.4 Other jurisdictions

Visitors in Australia, New Zealand and other jurisdictions may have additional rights under applicable national, state, provincial or territorial privacy laws.

Where an applicable law grants a legally enforceable privacy right, Historical Bookshelf will assess a valid request in accordance with that law.

16. How to exercise your rights

To make a privacy request, contact:

hello@historicalbookshelf.com

Please provide enough information for us to understand and respond to your request.

We may ask for reasonable information to verify your identity where necessary.

We will respond within the period required by applicable law.

17. Complaints

If you have a privacy concern, please contact us first so that we can investigate it.

You may also have the right to complain to the privacy or data-protection authority responsible for your location.

In the United Kingdom, this is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Visitors in other jurisdictions may contact their applicable national, state, provincial or territorial regulator.

18. Children’s privacy

Historical Bookshelf is a general-audience website and is not directed at children under 13.

We do not knowingly collect personal information online from children under 13.

A child under 13 should not knowingly provide personal information through the website.

If we learn that personal information has been collected from a child without any legally required parental consent, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

A parent or guardian with concerns may contact:

hello@historicalbookshelf.com

19. Sensitive personal information

Historical Bookshelf does not intentionally request visitors to provide sensitive personal information such as:

• health information;
• biometric information;
• precise location information;
• government identity numbers;
• financial-account credentials;
• racial or ethnic origin;
• religious or philosophical beliefs;
• political opinions;
• trade-union membership; or
• information concerning a person’s sex life or sexual orientation.

Please do not include sensitive personal information in ordinary correspondence with us.

20. Third-party websites

Historical Bookshelf contains links to external websites including:

• booksellers;
• publishers;
• authors;
• libraries;
• reference sources;
• review services;
• social-media services; and
• affiliate partners.

We do not control the privacy, security or content practices of external websites.

You should review the privacy and cookie policies of an external service before supplying personal information or making a purchase.

21. Embedded content

Pages may contain embedded content or resources supplied by third parties, such as videos, images, maps, social-media material or other interactive content.

An embedded service may collect technical information, use cookies or otherwise process information as though you had visited that service directly.

Where consent is required for non-essential embedded content, it will not be activated until the relevant consent has been obtained.

22. Do Not Track and browser privacy signals

Some browsers provide a “Do Not Track” setting or other privacy signals.

There is not a single universally adopted technical standard governing every browser signal. Where applicable law requires Historical Bookshelf to recognise a legally valid browser-based privacy or opt-out signal, we will process that signal as required.

23. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when:

• website functions change;
• service providers change;
• social-media or API integrations change;
• our use of cookies or similar technologies changes;
• our information practices change;
• legal requirements change; or
• security or operational requirements change.

The current version will be published on this page with its updated date.

Where required by law, we will provide additional notice or request new consent before using information for a materially different purpose.

24. Contact

For privacy questions, requests or concerns, contact:

Andrew Ashton
Historical Bookshelf
57 Kimberley Road
Penylan
Cardiff
CF23 5DL
United Kingdom

Email: hello@historicalbookshelf.com
Website: https://www.historicalbookshelf.com/