Emily Maguire, a British-born singer/songwriter who has been on a remarkable personal journey will be show casing her new album, Bird Inside a Cage, at Twickfolk.

She will play an acoustic version of her long-awaited fourth album, which has been entirely financed by her fan base.

The album, released on July 15, is a bold departure from her previous recordings, but still retaining her famous emotive lyrics.

Her strong songs come from a very tough journey into the music world, beginning when she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia pain syndrome, an illness that attacks the nervous system and which kept her hospitalised and housebound for years.

But, she says: “It wasn’t all negative - it gave me the time and space to discover song-writing and learn guitar from Bob Marley songbooks.”

Once she had made a full recovery she moved to the Australian bush after becoming fed-up with the grey of London and set up her own record label, Shaktu.

Her breakthrough came in 2007, when she got a support slot on the UK/ Ireland tour of US singer/songwriter Don “American Pie” Maclean, climaxing in a show at the Royal Albert Hall.

After such a bumpy journey, she has now recorded her own album financed by her fans.

Maguire says: “Everything we’ve achieved in the past 10 years has been made possible by the involvement of people who love my songs and believe in me.

“I have these amazing, lovely and generous and committed people. I have been just so delighted and amazed by people’s generosity. I even got a donation of £1,000 from a complete stranger.”

Emily Maguire; Twickfolk, the Patch, London Road, Twickenham, Sunday, July 7, 7.45pm. Tickets are £9, from wegottickets.com/twickfolk. For more information, visit emilymaguire.com.