EMILY Maguire emerges from "two years out of action" with her fifth album A Bit Of Blue and a series of spring and summer dates that opens at Helmsley Arts Centre on May 13.

Classically trained as a child on cello, piano, flute and recorder, Emily taught herself the guitar and first started writing songs when she found herself stuck at home with a chronic illness called fibromyalgia pain syndrome.

Giving up her London flat, Emily lived an eco-friendly, self-sufficient lifestyle for four years in a shack assembled from recycled wood, tin and potato sacks on a farm in the Australian bush, where she made goats cheese to finance her first two albums, Stranger Place and Keep Walking.

On returning to Britain in 2007, she has since recorded the albums Believer in 2009, the fan-funded Bird Inside A Cage in 2013 and now A Bit Of Blue (presumably not a reference to her cheese-making prowess, but the depressive episodes that have blighted her).

The latest came after an intensive tour of Germany in June 2014, when Emily developed chronic tendonitis in both arms, forcing her to cancel all her gigs and leaving her unable to play her instruments for 18 months. In turn this triggered a severe depressive episode that lasted a year.

Now recovered, Emily has not only released her hauntingly beautiful, minimalist new album, but also published her second collection of poetry, prose and lyrics, Notes From The North Pole, put together during those dark days using dictation software as she was unable to type.

“My new album and book both came out of a dark time in my life so I feel very grateful that something good came out of something bad,” says the 42-year-old Londoner. “I had a lot of support from my family, friends and fans, which made all the difference, and I am just so glad now to be playing music again.”

Emily speaks frequently in the media about combating the stigma of mental illness, featuring several times on BBC Radio 4 including on Woman’s Hour, Loose Ends and Midweek, where she was interviewed by Libby Purves in October 2013 about her earlier book, Start Over Again.

In that 2010 book, Emily told the story behind her songs, her journeys into psychosis, depression and bipolar disorder, and the hope and poetic beauty that emerge from the other side. Based on the verses of her song Start Over Again, this selection of Emily's poetry, prose, song lyrics and personal diary entries offered an insight into the creativity of a manic-depressive mind.

Emily had hidden her condition for years until she finally decided to confront the stigma and publish her first book: “People said ‘you’re so brave’, but I didn’t feel brave, I just felt completely liberated. I could now talk about it. People could understand where these songs were coming from,” she says.

On her MySpace page, Emily cites Bach, Bob Marley and Buddha as her influences, and as a practising Buddhist for more than 15 years, she dedicates all her albums to her teacher, Lama Jampa Thaye.

Tickets for Emily's 7.30pm concert on May 13 are on sale at £10 at helmsleyarts.co.uk and on 01439 771700.