A biscuit belongs beside a cup of tea. A browser cookie is rather less charming, but it can still be useful.
This page explains which kinds of cookies and similar technologies may be used when you visit Hawthorn & Key, what they are for and how you can control them.
Not every cookie described below will necessarily be placed during every visit. What is used may depend on your location, the services active on the website and the privacy choices you make.
Last updated: 1 October 2026
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small piece of information that a website or an associated service can store in your browser or on your device.
Cookies can perform very ordinary jobs: remembering a choice, helping a website function, measuring whether a page loaded correctly or preventing the same privacy question from appearing every time you open another article.
Other technologies, such as local browser storage and device identifiers, can perform similar functions. Where it makes the policy easier to read, we use the word cookies to describe these technologies collectively.
What does Hawthorn & Key use them for?
The technologies used on the website can broadly be divided into a few groups.
Essential and functional technologies
Some technologies are used to keep the website operating correctly, securely and consistently.
They may be used, for example, to:
- support essential website functions;
- protect the website against abuse;
- remember privacy and consent choices;
- maintain technical settings needed for a requested service.
Some essential technologies may be used without advertising or analytics consent where the law permits this because the website could not reasonably provide the relevant function without them.
Analytics
It is useful for an independent journal to know whether anybody can actually find what it publishes.
Hawthorn & Key uses Google services and Site Kit by Google and may use Google Analytics to understand website readership and performance.
Analytics can help answer questions such as:
- which articles are being read;
- how readers arrive at the website;
- which devices and browsers are being used;
- whether a page is unusually slow or difficult to use;
- how the journal can be improved.
Where consent is legally required before analytics cookies or similar technologies are used, their use is subject to the choices made through our consent controls.
Advertising
Hawthorn & Key may display advertising through Google AdSense.
Advertising helps support the practical cost of maintaining an independent online publication.
Google and participating advertising technology providers may use cookies and similar technologies to:
- deliver advertisements;
- measure advertising performance;
- limit repeated advertisements;
- detect invalid traffic, abuse or fraud;
- personalise advertising where you have given the required consent.
If you do not consent to advertising personalisation or other optional advertising purposes, the advertising available to you may operate differently or be more limited.
Personalised and non-personalised advertising
Personalised advertising can use information about a visitor’s activity or interests to influence which advertisements are displayed.
Non-personalised or otherwise restricted advertising uses less information for personalisation, although technical information may still be processed where necessary for purposes such as delivery, measurement, security and fraud prevention.
Which form of advertising can be shown depends on applicable law, your location and the consent choices you make.
Visitors in the EEA, United Kingdom and Switzerland
If you visit Hawthorn & Key from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you may be shown a consent message before certain optional technologies are used.
Hawthorn & Key uses Google’s consent management platform for this purpose.
The message allows you to:
- consent to the available purposes;
- decline consent;
- review and manage the available options in more detail.
Your decision may itself be stored so that the website can remember it.
Can I change my mind?
Yes.
Where consent controls are made available on the website, you can use them to review or change your privacy choices.
You can also use your browser settings to view, block or delete cookies. Browsers differ, so the precise controls depend on the browser and device you use.
Deleting cookies may also delete a previously stored consent preference, which can result in the website asking for your choices again.
What happens if I block cookies?
Much of The Hawthorn Archive can be read without optional cookies.
Blocking certain technologies may, however, affect particular website functions, measurement, advertising or the ability to remember choices between visits.
Rejecting optional cookies does not prevent you from reading the journal.
Third-party technologies
Some technologies used on Hawthorn & Key are provided by companies whose services are integrated with the website rather than being created directly by us.
These may include services concerned with analytics, consent management, advertising, hosting, security and email delivery.
Those providers may process information according to their own privacy documentation and the consent choices applicable to their services.
Google services
Services used on Hawthorn & Key may include:
- Site Kit by Google;
- Google Analytics;
- Google AdSense;
- Google’s consent management platform.
The exact combination may change as the website develops. A service being listed here does not necessarily mean that every associated cookie is used during every visit.
Do cookies tell Hawthorn & Key who I am?
Ordinary analytics information does not give the editorial team a neat card bearing a reader’s name, address and list of favourite legends.
Nevertheless, some online identifiers and technical information can constitute personal data under privacy law. That is why these technologies are covered by this policy and by our Privacy Policy.
How long do cookies last?
Some cookies exist only for the duration of a browser session and disappear afterwards. Others can remain for a defined period so that a choice or setting can be remembered.
The duration depends on the particular technology and provider.
Changes to this policy
The services behind a website change from time to time, and the Cookie Policy should change with them.
If Hawthorn & Key adds, removes or materially changes technologies that affect this page, we may update the policy accordingly. The revision date at the top of the page indicates the latest material update.
Still curious?
If you have a question about cookies, consent or privacy on Hawthorn & Key, write to info@hawthornandkey.co.uk.
For the broader picture of how information is handled, please read our Privacy Policy.