We’ve made it to the height of summer and this month’s books strike a slightly reflective tone. Notable reads include memoirs, travelogues and essays all of which give lyrical and thoughtful accounts of their chosen subjects; a feast for non-fiction lovers but equally tempting for those of us who don’t often stray too far away from our novels.

Countryfile Presenter and farmer, Adam Henson has put together a beginner friendly guide to the countryside, Two for Joy. Many Gazette readers will probably know most of what is written here already but, as Henson says in his introduction, it is a nice book to dip in and out of and it is written by someone who clearly loves the sights, sounds and rhythm of the countryside. Split into four sections – one for each season – this is a charming book that gets you up close to Adam and his passion for the pastoral.

Moving into memoir but retaining an element of the guide, Andrew Martin’s popular Yorkshire: There and Back is now out in paperback. Told with plenty of Yorkshire wit, Martin travels the length and breadth of ‘God’s own county’ recalling the Yorkshire of his 1970s childhood and viewing the county as it is today. Martin is impeccably observant and has an eye for detail (perhaps due to his training as a barrister) which makes this book a pleasure to read for the professional Yorkshire folk and amateurs alike! Another ‘must mention’ in the memoirs section this month is The Last Overland by Alex Bescoby. Perhaps better described as travel writing, this book details the epic journey from Singapore to London that Bescoby undertook in tribute the First Overland journey (and book) from London to Singapore executed by Tim Slessor in 1955. Completing the journey in an original ‘Oxford’ Landrover, Bescoby’s account mixes adventure, history, travel and memoir in this completely engrossing read.

This month is a feast for non-fiction lovers as Colm Toibin releases his book of essays, A Guest at the Feast and the official biography of one of the most popular writers of this century, Terry Pratchett, also makes it onto the shelves. Toibin’s essays are incisive and scholarly; they take in commentary on writers, cities, illness and more all with a measured lucidity that sets him apart as one of the greatest writers of his time. There can be few better placed that Rob Wilkins to write the official biography of Terry Pratchett, creator of the Discworld series. Friend and former assistant to Pratchett, Wilkins picked up where the great man left off and completed the unfinished memoir that Pratchett had started before his untimely death. Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes is a fitting tribute to an extremely clever, witty and complex man and, most importantly, it includes those beloved footnotes he made his own.

Finally, the much-anticipated paperback publication of Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait deserves a mention. Inspired by Robert Browning’s poem, My Last Duchess, O’Farrell offers a truly enthralling account of Lucrezia de Medici, a young duchess who, on the death of her older sister, is required to marry a Duke who is in advance of her in both years and experience. After a promising start to the marriage, her new life among the formalities and constraints of her new husband’s court, Lucrezia starts to suffer under the weight of her inexperience and paranoia that the Duke could be planning her death. If you loved O’Farrell’s marvellous recreation of Shakespearean England in Hamnet, you will not want to miss The Marriage Portrait.

Two for Joy by Adam Henson, pub. by Little Brown Book Group, hardback, ISBN: 9781408727362, £20

Yorkshire: There and Back by Andrew Martin, pub. by Little Brown Book Group, paperback, ISBN: 9781472154873, £12.99

The Last Overland by Alex Bescoby, pub. by Michael O’ Mara Books, ISBN: 9781789295498, paperback, £10.99

A Guest at the Feast by Colm Toibin, pub. by Penguin, ISBN: 9780241004630, hardback, £16.99

Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes by Rob Wilkins, pub. by Transworld Publishers, ISBN: 9780857526632, hardback, £25

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’ Farrell, pub. by Headline, ISBN: 9781472223883, paperback, £9.99