Which is fair enough, I suppose; we'll never point our camera at someone who insists that they don't want us to. But while his face may not – yet – be enormously well known on Bute, his name most certainly is.
As the chairman of the Bute Community Land Company, it is he who has spearheaded the campaign for the buy-out of the Rhubodach forest at the north end of the island, and the remarkable 93 per cent 'yes' vote in a community ballot on the proposed purchase – the largest community ballot ever held under Scotland's land reform legislation.
By the time we meet in the kitchen of the family's Bute bolthole, in the remote north-west of the island, the whirlwind of the ballot, the count and the seemingly unceasing media interest in the buy-out has just about begun to die down. But McGhee, who earns his corn during the working week as a QC in London, is determined that neither he, nor the four other BCLC directors, will be taking it easy.
"We've got to ride that wave of goodwill," he says.
"Everyone is absolutely shattered just now, but we've just got to keep moving forward - we would be letting people down if we said we were just going to take a break for a month.
"There are so many people who are relying on us, and who are so excited about that the future could hold."
A total of 2,739 people voted in the community ballot, representing 52.5 per cent of the island's electorate, beating the 50 per cent threshold laid down in the Land Reform (Scotland) Act of 2003 by a margin of 129 votes.
Of those votes, 2,557 were in favour and 177 against. But in a brief speech immediately after the result was announced at the Pavilion in Rothesay on Friday, McGhee spoke of the need to avoid any triumphalism, and to try as much as possible to involve those who spoke out against the buy-out.
He knows that the 177 'no' voters do not comprise the entire opposition; some, though unfortunately there's no way of knowing how many, decided not to vote at all in the hope they could prevent the 50 per cent threshold being met. And it's a theme McGhee returns to very early in our conversation.
"We must never forget that there were a lot of people who were against it, or who weren't sure," he says.
"They're just as important a part of the community. The points they made are all good points, and we need to embrace those thoughts.
"One of the things we've been thinking about is how we get the community as a whole engaged, involved and consulted. The reason it has all been done by a small group so far is because there is no way we could have got to where we are with a bigger group.
"But moving forward, we need to get the community involved in what is, after all, their company. Every resident of the island can become a member - it doesn't cost anything, and doesn't involve any liability.
"We need to become a community company in reality, not just nominally. It needs to get to the point where the girl on the till at the Co-op, for example, feels that the forest is hers."
In practical terms, the next step is, well, a 'next steps' event, to be held at Rothesay Academy on March 21, at which the results of the BCLC feasibility study – which was presented to Scottish ministers, along with the official ballot result, on Tuesday – will be officially unveiled, and when members of the public can find out more information from the company directors and from third parties who may be involved in the management of the land.
And there's also the small matter of finding the £1.4 million required to buy the forest, though discussions seem to be well advanced, and McGhee says he is confident that the money will be sourced from the various funding agencies by the end of May deadline.
That's the essential detail, then. But the BCLC chairman doesn't see the purchase and management of the forest as the end of the company's story. Far from it, in fact; it's when he talks about the potential for wider benefits for the whole community that his enthusiasm for the project really begins to show through.
"Right from the start," he says, "I've seen the forest as the important first piece of the jigsaw - the first small step in a number of small steps that we need to take.
"When I talk to MPs, or MSPs, or to government funding agencies, they all want me to tell them more about the place - and not just about the forest. They want to know how it will affect the economy, the environment and the social aspects of the whole community. The more I sell the notion of the forest being part of a big idea, the more all these people are interested.
"The forest is a fascinating first step, but there are so many other fantastic things that are just beginning to happen - the restoration of the Pavilion, for example, (and] the Townscape Heritage Initiative has enormous potential.
"BCLC are keen on helping in whatever way is appropriate to facilitate the right outcomes. I wouldn't rule out, for example, the company taking on one of the dilapidated buildings in the THI area.
"The idea is not to do all these things ourselves, but to energise other people to do them. If BCLC are taking this step (with the forest] that is energising the people of Bute, I think the company has an obligation to see what else we can do to direct that energy.
"It's not about empire building - we will be a success if all these things are not within the BCLC umbrella, but the company has played its part in helping these things to happen."
Using the forest as a means of kick-starting the physical development of the island is one thing, but it is clear McGhee also sees it as an expression of changing attitudes among Bute's residents.
"What I can sense here," he suggests, "is that there is a change - that people, for the first time, believe they can affect and even control their own futures and take charge of their own destiny. That all sounds very grand, but I think that's what the excitement is about.
"I think that if we ride the tide of enthusiasm and energy here, we will see a material difference on the island within five years. The test of that will be firstly, whether are more tourists, whether the fabric of Rothesay is better, with more shops open and so on, and secondly, whether people feel better about the future. I don't think that's easy, but I think it's do-able.
"The interesting thing is that interest (in the forest project] seems to go right across the age groups - we had one lady in her 80s visit the shop we had in Guildford Square last week who was really up for it, and at the other end of the scale we've got younger people who are really excited about the whole thing too. It seems to have crossed the generations, which I've found quite unexpected - the caricature of the older section of the population being a bit stick-in-the-mud just hasn't been the case.
"I think that may be because the older generation can remember what this place was like when it was really busy. I can remember when it was still quite busy towards the end of the 1960s, but those who remember it from the 1950s and even before the war will remember it as an absolutely jumping place. Maybe that's why that generation can believe it will be a good thing if we had that prosperity again.
"However, I can also understand those who say they don't want to turn the place into a bit of a Disneyland. And neither do we. What's going to be important is not destroying what makes this place special."
So what, exactly, is it that McGhee feels makes Bute special?
"Well, it's a wonderfully unspoilt, get-away-from-it-all type of place," he says, "and yet you're not in the middle of nowhere, with, whatever people say about CalMac, a fantastic ferry service. So on one level, it combines great natural assets with great accessibility.
"But from another angle, it has an extraordinary sense of community. Perhaps that is something to do with the physical size of the island and the fact that there are only seven thousand people here, but it really is very close-knit and a very non-elitist community as well - I don't feel you're judged in the same way as you would be if you lived in, say, Newton Mearns, or in Putney, where I live in London.
"I'm not saying that is unique, but it is what makes this place really special."
Special enough to make McGhee want to re-establish a presence on Bute – his grandfather lived in Ascog, and he still has strong family connections on the island through his uncle and aunt, who run a local restaurant, as well as treasuring those memories of what the place was like when it was still the destination of choice for "doon the watter" Glasgow families.
His legal background led to him agreeing to act, unpaid, for a group of local objectors at a public inquiry last year into plans for a fish farm near Inchmarnock, off the island's west coast. But getting caught up in fish farm inquiries and community land buy-outs definitely wasn't included in the plan when he and his wife Marianne decided to buy a property on Bute.
"What Marianne and I wanted was a little two-bedroom cottage which was somewhere just for us - somewhere we could come, but not the children.
"But I think it was when I was asked to represent the fish farm objectors that we realised just what an extraordinary place this is. What that did show was the community coming together in the most extraordinary way - and we just thought 'what an extraordinary community this is'.
"After the developer's appeal was dismissed, we hosted a party here for all the fish farm objectors, and I remember saying on that day that we've done a really great thing as a community, but it's a really great negative thing, and that we need to keep hold of this sense of community and use it to do a really good positive thing. But after that I thought nothing more of it."
Then, last summer, a local contractor was working on the McGhees' house when he happened to mention that the Rhubodach forest was being advertised for sale.
"I thought the community might be able to raise a couple of hundred thousand, and then was told that it was for offers over £1.3 million – at which I thought 'is this really a good idea?'.
"But we got a few people together and said 'are we going to do this?' – knowing that if we are, it's going to be a really, really hard thing to do and it's not something that is guaranteed to be a success. I was in two minds, but we had a dozen people around the table, and eventually we decided that yes, we were going to try."
And the rest, as they say, is history. Well, not quite: £1.4 million is not exactly the sort of money you find by rummaging down the back of the sofa. But it's clear that a lot of the groundwork has been done, and that the landslide 'yes' vote is not all that likely to go unrewarded.
"Well, I'm as confident as I can be about getting the money," McGhee says. "We are looking forward in due course to talking to the Attenboroughs in more detail about our plans, and seeing if there's a way they can be involved.
"It would be a tremendous opportunity to do something in the forest that had an Attenborough connection - if they were happy about that of course - because they've been great supporters of the island for many years.
"What we would hope is within the first year to have put in place cycle tracks, paths and so on, and within the first couple of years being ready to make a start on any building work that is going to happen.
"The other thing I'm hoping for within the first year is a re-routing of the West Island Way so it goes through the forest, coming out over Shalunt and Stuck and then drops down at some point in or near Port Bannatyne, and we've had talks with the Discover Bute scheme and with Johnny Bute about that.
"It's too early to have a definite timescale for things, but I'm very clear that one needs to make a start quickly, though not with unreasonable haste. I would hope that within 12 months of the purchase we would be able to see a difference in the forest - it's not a question of buying it and then doing nothing with it for ten years.
"More important than the forest itself, though, is what it says about the community coming together and empowering itself to do something.
"The community is not passive in the process of its own destiny. It can make a difference. It's easy to say Johnny Bute could do it if he wanted to, or it's all the council's fault.
"All those people may or may not be able to do various things, but you can either wait for things to happen, and they don't, or you can decide you're going to affect your own destiny yourself.
"But I believe you're not in charge of what happens to you, and if you're dealt a particular set of cards you run with it and do the best you can, without necessarily knowing where it leads."
That's all fine, as far as it goes. But McGhee is also acutely aware that people will wonder what, exactly, is in it for him. And he is quite adamant that the answer, in a personal financial context, is nothing.
"I've never taken, and will never take, any personal financial interest in anything on this island," he says.
"I'm lucky to have a good job in London, and people should know that when I'm here talking I'm not doing it because there's any financial motive for me. Every day I'm working here is a day I'm not making any money in London.
"I'm looking at how we can help everybody here. Maybe that's why some people want me to be chairman - I'm desperately conscious of the fact that I've only just landed here, and while there are great disadvantages to not being a resident, there are maybe advantages to not being a resident and not having any personal financial interest.
"I'm not trying to get myself a position within the island's social set either - I'm quite happy minding my own business. I came here wanting to relax, and I'm ending up absolutely shattered - I'm going back to London more tired than when I come up.
"But I'm just genuinely enthusiastic about this place. I love the island and I love the people. We've only been here a short time, and already I've got more close friends here than I have in London - and we moved south in 1969. It's a beautiful, beautiful place, but it's the people that make it in the end."
See also: "Historic moment" as Bute backs forest buy-out – 12 February 2010
Forest directors hit back at buy-out doubts – 4 February 2010
Doubts raised over detail of buy-out plan – 27 January 2010
Buy-out team "delighted" at community response – 20 January 2010
Government backs Bute forest buy-out plan – 2 December 2009
Bute forest is put on the market – 2 September 2009
John McGhee QC – professional profile (with photo!) at MaitlandChambers.com
www.ButeForest.com – the Bute Community Land Company's official website
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