Stopping the catalogues is relatively straightforward. The Data Protection Act 1998 gives you the right to ask any organisation in the UK to stop (or not begin) using your personal details for 'direct marketing' purposes. You can enforce this right by sending marketeers a so-called data protection notice. It's bound to stop the catalogues, and if it doesn't you could lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office or, ultimately, take the junk mailers to court. More information and an example notice letter can be found in the Guide to Stamping Out Junk Mail under Contacting junk mailers.

Getting your own back

It's interesting you say you've never ordered a catalogue or bought anything from the catalogues. Usually, people's personal details become a commodity for anonymous list brokers as soon as you display any interest in a product or service. This happens a lot with charities; if you respond to a cold mailing from a charity and fail to tick a bunch of opt-out boxes hidden away in the small print you'll soon receive junk mail from all sorts of charities.

You might want to find out how the publishers of the catalogues got hold of your personal details. To do so you'd need to send them a second letter, called a subject access request. Like data protection notices such requests are covered by the Data Protection Act. More information about finding out what information organisations hold about you can be found in the For the public section of the website of the Information Commissioner's Office.

In short, you can stop the catalogues by using data protection notices. If you want to get to the bottom of why they are sending you unsolicited catalogues in the first place you can send them a subject access request.