McCartney's album inspired by loss of Linda

Sir Paul McCartney has said his new album contains his first wife Linda's "spirit" and his grief over the loss of her to breast cancer in 1998.

Sir Paul began composing it before she died but had to stop work on it for two years due to his grief.

He said: "I just couldn't do anything really. I was just grieving."

At a press conference in central London he said of the album, Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart): "It has a lot of my feelings for her in it. I gradually got back into it, I just sort of wrote my sadness out."

Wearing jeans, a blue shirt and a pin-stripe jacket, Sir Paul said of his fourth classical album: "I started it when Linda was alive, originally we went to Magdalen College together, so it has a lot my feelings for her in it."

"When she died it stalled me. I took a year or so before I could get back into it. The interlude in the middle is a particularly sad melody and is what got me going again," he said.

"Her spirit is very much in this. It would have been her birthday yesterday so it's very appropriate."

The star wrote the piece after being invited by Anthony Smith, then president of Magdalen College, to compose something for a new concert hall at the institution.

Sir Paul also reassured his army of fans "I'm doing fine" following the collapse of his second marriage.

The ex-Beatle, who is locked in a divorce battle with wife Heather Mills, said music "sustains" him.

He said: "I'm enjoying music. It's something I love to do. It's something that sustains me. So I'm enjoying it, finishing this project off and also the next one."

He said the lyrics to the album were inspired by what he believes is important in life - love, honesty and kindness.

Sir Paul said: "When I came around to thinking 'what do I want the words to say?' I just wrote down a whole load of things that interest me about truth, about love, about honesty and about kindness. Stuff that I thought was important in life."

Sir Paul said he was not always comfortable talking about his own music.

"It's not easy to talk about music, that's why you write it," he said.

He said of the album: "I'm very proud of it. I do like it."

He added: "I don't get involved in much instrumental music. It amazes me how you can hear a piece of music and it can reduce you to tears."

"But there are no words so it shouldn't really be telling you anything but it does."

"It doesn't just tell people who are musically educated. It tells everyone. It reaches us. So that's one of the exciting sides of this project, to write instrumental music that can reach your heart."

He added: "I hope to reach new people all the time and I hope my current fans will like it too."

The album was recorded at the Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles also famously created their music.

Sir Paul said: "It's always nice to work there for me because it brings back lots of memories."

The lyrics, which Sir Paul finished around six years ago, combined both English and Latin.

Sir Paul said at the press conference at record company EMI's offices in High Street Kensington: "I love what I do. I love writing music. If I didn't do it for a living I'd do it for a hobby."

"I just love going in each day and trying to write a piece of music. Each part of it (the album) was a thrill."

He said of the experience of writing a choral piece: "Because I don't officially know what I'm doing, I could do anything. A lot of the stuff I like about the piece is oddball, it's nice to just feel very free."

The organ from the Tower of London was used in the album and Sir Paul got the Latin title for the work from the name of a statue he saw in a New York church.

Ecce Cor Meum will be performed at the Royal Albert Hall in November.