Stuart Paterson’s story concerns a wee Scottish lad (Coran) who volunteers to slay the mighty Misterstourworm monster whose tail curls “right round the most northerly tip of Scotland”. With the help of a magic bridle and horse, the mythical Kelpie, Coran unsurprisingly slays the mythical sea serpent whose humps, more unexpectedly, become the Isle of Tyree and a number of other islands off the north west of Scotland.

It is a linear narrative which might grip the imagination of younger children but has no opportunity for characterisation and is, needless to say, completely devoid of humour. It’s all a bit too parochially tartan. Scottish actor Billy Boyd (Pippin Took in The Lord of the Rings) is the excellent derring-do narrator.

The music is on another level. Savourna Stevenson should be rightly proud of this vivid and atmospheric score with its network of themes and motifs that develop with the story. It works as an independent piece without narration and indeed is heard as such at the end of the CD after three slight but charming Stevenson songs performed by two Scottish youth choirs. Christopher Bell does it proud, as does the engineering, on a disc – it comes packaged in a book – that lasts just 37 minutes.