EMILY Maguire opens her spring and summer travels at Helmsley Arts Centre on Saturday, after emerging from "two years out of action" to release her fifth album, A Bit Of Blue.

In the wake of an intensive tour of Germany in June 2014, when Emily developed chronic tendonitis in both arms, she was forced to cancel all her gigs and was unable to play her instruments for 18 months. In turn this triggered a severe depressive episode that lasted a year.

“My new album and my book Notes From The North Pole 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."

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, the title is not a reference to her cheese-making prowess, but the depressive episodes that have blighted her. "I hadn't thought of the cheese connection but I do love a bit of blue!" says Emily.

York Press:

"A bit of blue is not a bad thing because it can make you think and reassess your life," says Emily Maguire. Picture: Richard Ecclestone

"I knew that song was going to be included on the album, and I'd been through dark times and I love a bit of alliteration, so I wanted to use it as the album title to say that 'a bit of blue' is not a bad thing because it can make you think and reassess your life and find a new direction: uncertainly followed by the sun coming out again."

Emily has not only released her hauntingly beautiful, minimalist new album, but also published her second collection of poetry, prose and lyrics, the aforementioned Notes From The North Pole, put together during those dark days using dictation software as she was unable to type. Earlier, in 2010, she had written the book Start Over Again, telling 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.

Rather than being cramped by having a manic-depressive mind, she prefers not to dwell on when depression might strike again. "Instead, I just make the most of the time when I'm well because I know it won't always be like that," says Emily. "I just focus on getting on with it when I'm feeling well, whether that's writing, making records or touring, and with the times when I'm not so well, I have to remember that it's not permanent, with family and friends saying it won't last.

"But this last depressive episode was really brutal, lasting a year, but the sense of relief when you come out of it is immense. You feel this huge relief, and it all informs my writing. If I didn't go through these experiences, I wouldn't be able to write about them. Everyone has highs and lows, not everyone is bipolar, but people can relate to the lyrics.

"In particular I have an amazingly loyal fanbase who have helped to finance the last two albums. Even though I effectively disappeared for two years, they still communicated with me and that meant the world to me."

Emily Maguire plays Helmsley Arts Centre on May 13, 7.30pm. Tickets: £20 at helmsleyarts.co.uk and on 01439 771700.