Mull Historical Society has joined forces with Sir Alexander McCall Smith, bestselling author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, on ‘Cattle Bells’. The song will feature on upcoming album ‘In My Mind There’s a Photograph’ – a collection of songs that finds MHS main man Colin MacIntyre collaborating with popular writers including Irvine Welsh, Yiyun Lee and Colum McCann.

With Colin describing the process as playing ‘Elton to their Bernie’, the words were written by Alexander McCall Smith and finds him reflecting on a photo of himself set against the stunning surrounds of the Kalahari in Botswana. He then goes on to think about his younger self and what the concept of home really is, opening with the line: ‘This must be me…’

Colin says Paul Simon’s ‘Gracelands’ is a key influence on this song and you can hear this in the perfectly pitched piano and bursts of gorgeous vocals from the London African Gospel Choir as they reflect on memories that have shaped a life well lived: ‘Those cattle bells, distant and sweet’…