CITIES, towns, and villages are living things. They do not stand still and stagnate. They evolve and adapt to new technologies, trends, times, and tribes.

Over the centuries, much is gained and much is lost. Yet there always remains clues to what once was in the form of intriguing place names, familiar landmarks, a chance conversation, and of course, old photographs.

'Lost Abergavenny' by Chronicle reporter Tim Butters is a book bursting to the seams with old photos for a reader to lose themselves in.

Tim explained, "Without old photographs, this book wouldn’t exist. In particular, the photos taken by Abergavenny native Albert Lyons and frequent visitor Udo Schultz.

"They may not have bottled lightning or captured moonbeams, but thanks to their diligence and skill and that of the other lensmen featured in this book, they were responsible for an even higher form of magic - bringing the past to life for future generations!"

It can be hard to imagine that the black and white faces frozen in time and the buildings that are no more, which feature in 'Lost Abergavenny' were once as real as the sky above your head.

When the camera clicked and the flash illuminated the moment like an angel of alchemy, the future was unwritten, and the present never believed it would one day become the past.

But all things fade, even photographs, but thankfully, they can be preserved for posterity.

Many of the pictures in 'Lost Abergavenny' have already seen the light of day in other books, the pages of the Abergavenny Chronicle, and the worldwide web.

Yet books go out of print, newspapers get discarded, and the memory hole of the internet devours everything.

Old pictures deserve better than to be hoarded by museums or stored in drawers, gathering dust.

They can speak a thousand words, suggest the old cliché, and those words deserve an audience!

Lost Abergavenny by Tim Butters is available now.