Reports and Trips
You are invited to read about previous Merlins' achievements in their reports. A summary with some links to short versions of individual reports can be found by following the links in the summaries below.
Copies of the Merlin Trust reports are in the Royal Horticultural Society's Library.
Vincent Square, London SW1P 2PE
Tel: 020 7821 3050
The original reports are in the Royal Geographic Society (with IBG) headquarters at 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR. To consult these (Monday to Friday, 1 am to 5pm) please contact RGS-IBG Expedition Advisory Centre, tel: 020 7591 3033 or email by clicking on this email address - info@rgs.org. You can also search the RGS database of expeditions reports which includes abstracts of the Merlin reports at www.rgs.org/expeditionreports.
Tim Lever - Yunnan, China, 2006
In 2006 Tim visited the Yunnan Highlands as part of the Alpine Garden Society tour. The short version of his report can be downloaded by clicking here.
Please note that these reports are copyright protected. Permission to publish any part of a report must be sought from The Merlin Trust by contacting the Secretary in the first instance.
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‘Writing your report’ by Anna Pavord
Writing is a kind of talking, never more so than when you are describing a trip that you have been on or a discovery you have made. The words you use, if they are well chosen, will make the 'listener' who is reading you, feel they are by your side, climbing a mountain perhaps with rough scree slipping underfoot, or stooping to smell a narcissus, springing from the turf of an alpine meadow.
Most people though, find talking easier than writing and in writing, lose the immediacy that makes listening to them such a pleasure. They write as though in a different language. Sentences become long and over involved. There are too many words that aren't earning a living, words such as 'somewhat', 'truly' (as in 'truly incredible'), 'hopefully'.
One way to keep a check on this is to read the piece out loud. Does it sound convincing? Does it sound like you? Are there commas or full stops where, in reading, you instinctively need pauses? Have you chosen the most telling aspects of your trip to highlight in your report?
All scientific reports must be accurate. That goes without saying. But the best ones will add to the bald facts. They will perhaps pick on an incident, small in itself, which sums up the heart of the experience. This might be an encounter with a ticket collector or the way fruit is arranged on a market stall. It might be a road sign, or a sudden, unexpected view of a mountain peak. Wherever you are, remember, you may never be here again. Use your eyes. Strain your ears. Take notes. Then, like an alchemist, distil the experience, and give us, your readers, the essence.
Anna Pavord is garden correspondent to ‘The
Independent’ newspaper and author of many best selling garden books.
Her finest work 'The Tulip' (1999) – dedicated to the renowned
plantswoman Valerie Finnis, the founder of the Merlin Trust, has been
described in one review ''It is written by a scholar and reads like a
thriller''.
