Privacy Policy

Last updated: 21 September 2026

This privacy policy explains how Leslie Costar collects, uses and protects personal information when you visit lesliecostar.co.uk, contact Leslie through the website or communicate with him by email.

Who is responsible for your information?

Leslie Costar is the data controller responsible for personal information collected through this website.

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or how your information is handled, please contact:

Email: contact@lesliecostar.co.uk
Website: https://lesliecostar.co.uk/

Information we may collect

Information you provide

If you use the website’s contact form or contact Leslie by email, we may collect:

Your name
Your email address
The contents of your message
Any other information you choose to provide

Please do not include sensitive personal information in your message unless it is necessary for your enquiry.

Information collected automatically

When you visit the website, limited technical information may be recorded automatically by the website or its hosting and security services. This may include:

Your IP address
Your browser and device type
The date and time of your visit
The pages you visit
Information about errors or security events

Where you have consented to analytics cookies, additional information about your use of the website will be collected through Google Analytics 4.

How we use your information

We may use your personal information to:

Read and respond to your enquiry
Communicate with you about books, events, interviews, media enquiries or other matters you have contacted Leslie about
Keep an appropriate record of correspondence
Understand how visitors find and use the website
Improve the website and its content
Operate, maintain and protect the website
Detect and prevent spam, misuse or security threats
Comply with a legal obligation or respond to a lawful request

Information submitted through the contact form will not be used to send you marketing emails unless you have separately asked to receive them.

Our lawful bases for processing

Under UK data-protection law, we must have a lawful basis for using your personal information.

Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on:

Legitimate interests: to respond to enquiries, communicate with readers and professional contacts, maintain appropriate records, and operate and protect the website
Consent: where you have actively agreed to a particular use of your information, including the use of optional analytics cookies
Legal obligation: where information must be processed or retained to comply with the law
Contract: where processing is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into an agreement or to fulfil an agreement with you

Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

Contact form and email enquiries

When you submit the contact form, the information you provide is sent to Leslie so that he can respond to your enquiry.

Your information may also pass through the website’s hosting, email, security or website-management providers as part of operating the website and delivering your message.

We do not sell or rent contact details to other organisations.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how visitors find and use this website. This helps us measure website traffic, identify popular pages and improve the website and its content.

Google Analytics may collect information such as:

The pages you visit
How long you spend on the website
How you arrived at the website
Your approximate geographical location
Your browser and device type
Interactions with pages and links
Cookie and online identifiers

Google Analytics is provided by Google Ireland Limited. Google may process information using servers located outside the United Kingdom.

Google Analytics will only be activated after you have consented to analytics cookies through the website’s cookie banner. The lawful basis for this processing is your consent.

You can reject analytics cookies or withdraw your consent at any time by using the website’s cookie-preference controls. Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.

Google Analytics data is retained in accordance with the retention settings applied to our Google Analytics account and will normally be retained for up to 14 months.

For more information about how Google uses information, please read Google’s Privacy Policy:

https://policies.google.com/privacy

Cookies

This website uses cookies and similar technologies.

Some cookies are strictly necessary for the website to operate, maintain security and remember your cookie preferences. These cookies do not require consent.

We also use optional analytics cookies provided by Google Analytics 4. These help us understand how visitors use the website and enable us to improve its content and performance.

Analytics cookies will not be placed unless you select Accept or otherwise consent to analytics cookies through the website’s cookie banner.

You can accept, reject or manage optional cookies using the controls provided on the website. You can also withdraw your consent at any time through the Manage Cookie Preferences link in the website footer.

Further details about the individual cookies used, their purposes and how long they remain on your device are available in our Cookie Policy.

Links to booksellers and other websites

This website contains links to third-party websites, including Filament Publishing, Amazon, Bookshop.org and Waterstones.

If you follow one of these links, the third party may collect information about your visit and will process any information you provide in accordance with its own privacy policy.

Leslie Costar is not responsible for the content, security or privacy practices of external websites.

Purchases are completed directly with the selected retailer. Leslie Costar does not receive or process your payment-card details through this website.

Who we share information with

Personal information may be shared with trusted service providers where this is necessary to operate and protect the website. These may include:

The website hosting provider
Email and communication providers
Website maintenance and technical-support providers
Security, backup and anti-spam services
The cookie-consent provider
Google Ireland Limited, as the provider of Google Analytics 4, where you have consented to analytics cookies

These providers may only process information for the purposes for which their services are being used.

We may also disclose information where required by law, to protect legal rights or to respond to a valid request from a court, regulator or law-enforcement authority.

International transfers

Some website, email, analytics or technical-service providers may process information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that an appropriate legal safeguard is in place. This may include an adequacy regulation or approved contractual protections.

How long we keep your information

Contact-form submissions and email correspondence will normally be retained for up to 24 months after the enquiry has been resolved.

Information may be retained for longer where this is necessary to maintain an ongoing relationship, establish or defend legal rights, resolve a dispute or comply with a legal obligation.

Google Analytics data will normally be retained for up to 14 months, in accordance with the retention setting applied to the Google Analytics account.

Technical and security records will be retained only for as long as reasonably necessary to operate and protect the website, in accordance with the retention periods used by the relevant service providers.

Information that is no longer required will be securely deleted or anonymised.

How we protect your information

Reasonable technical and organisational measures are used to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure.

However, no website or method of electronic communication can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:

Ask for a copy of the personal information held about you
Ask for inaccurate or incomplete information to be corrected
Ask for your information to be deleted
Ask for the use of your information to be restricted
Object to certain uses of your information
Receive certain information in a portable format
Withdraw your consent where processing is based on consent

These rights are not absolute and may not apply in every situation.

To exercise any of these rights, please email contact@lesliecostar.co.uk. We may need to ask for information to confirm your identity before completing your request.

Making a complaint

If you have concerns about how your personal information has been handled, please contact Leslie first so that the matter can be investigated.

You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office:

Website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Children’s information

This website is not intended to collect personal information from children. If you believe that a child has provided personal information through the website, please contact us so that it can be reviewed and deleted where appropriate.

Changes to this privacy policy

This policy may be updated occasionally to reflect changes to the website, the services it uses or applicable legal requirements.

The latest version will always be published on this page, with the date of the most recent update shown at the top.