THE topic of lost ancient civilisations can be fascinating and romantic.

The sites of such civilisations in South America used to be hard to get to, but nowadays tourist companies will fly you there and provide comfortable accommodation and transport.

Nonetheless much of the romance remains. This was made clear to us by Ray Aspden when, on Monday, August 10, he gave a talk about the Maya of Central America before 900AD.

The Mayas lived in parts of present-day Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. We were shown images of some of the pyramids, palaces, plazas and other remains of the Mayan cities, set in humid jungle and abandoned before 900AD, for reasons which are not clear.

This talk was far more than a show of holiday pictures, interesting though such talks can be. Ray Aspden had obviously studied his subject thoroughly. His explanations of the Mayan hieroglyphic alphabet and of their counting system shed light on the ways of a people which had no metal, no draught animals, and did not develop the wheel. The combination of fascinating subject matter, high quality images and lucid delivery made for a fascinating morning for the Probus members.

Malvern Link Probus Club meets every other Monday at the hall of the United Reformed Church in Malvern Link. Retired professional and business men are welcome to attend our meetings to see if they might like to join our informal, friendly Club. We assemble from 9.30am onwards for a chat before the meeting proper, which starts at 10am. Further details from Paul Dunleavey (01684 565190).

The next meeting will be on Monday, August 24, when member John Colley will be performing in song; and member George James, who has already spoken to the Club about experiences as far as wartime active service, will pick up his story from that point.

PAUL DUNLEAVEY