Many books have encouraged me to travel but two had such a powerful impact that I travelled very specifically to experience the setting of each of them.

The first to Africa – to Nairobi, Kenya. The second book inspired a shorter but equally memorable journey to Savannah, Georgia in the American South.

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The opening sentences of Isak Dinesen’s powerful novel, first published in 1937, have always moved me.

“I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong hills. The equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the north, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet.”

The moment I read that those lines I knew I wanted to see her farm and the Ngong hills.

Karen Blixen – pen name Isak Dinesen – was married to Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke, a Swedish aristocrat with whom she moved to Africa. It was a difficult marriage, and after they divorced she had a long relationship with pilot, hunter and adventurer Denys Finch Hatton, who turned out to be her true love.

Karen ran the farm in an age when it was highly unusual for women to do so, and she turned out to be much better at it than Baron Blizen-Finecke who mismanaged it during the marriage.

In 1990, an opportunity to visit came knocking. At the time I lived in Montreal and had a consulting firm. The Canadian International Development Agency, better known as CIDA, asked me to undertake a planning study which meant research and interviews over ten days in Nairobi.

I arrived on a Saturday; the following day found me at the Blixen farm in the Karen District of the city.

In 1964, the Danish government purchased Blixen's former house and gifted it to Kenya to celebrate the country’s newly gained independence from Britain.

The house appeared in the 1985 film adaptation of Out of Africa starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. Some say the filmmakers had a hand in restoring the buildings which had fallen into disrepair. The following year the National Museums of Kenya acquired the property and converted the house and grounds into a museum.

I made a second visit 34 years later in 2024 when I took my family on a safari to Kenya and Tanzania. Our safari ended in Nairobi. I was very happy at the chance to visit the museum again.

The grounds are green and splendid with a variety of trees. Amidst them sits restored machinery, imported from England at great expense to process the coffee grown on the farm. I expected Denys Fynch Hatton and Karen Blixen to step through history and stroll arm-in-arm around the farm, but they did so only in my imagination.

As with Out of Africa, the remarkable non-fiction book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt inspired a journey, this time drawing me to Savannah, Georgia to experience the American south.

The combination of the book with a movie starring John Cusack and Kevin Spacey indelibly imprinted Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil on my mind. And once imprinted, it was only a matter of planning and time before I made the pilgrimage to Savannah.

My visit there included a tour of the house in which the book is set – and where the film adaptation was shot – guided by a very knowledgeable docent. The first chapter is entitled “An Evening in the Mercer House” and it’s very true that the house itself became a major character in the book.

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Mercer House was started in 1860 for General Hugh Mercer. Its construction halted during the Civil War then was completed in 1868 by its new owner, cotton merchant John Randolph Wilder.

(Mercer was great-grandfather to songwriter Johnny Mercer who wrote "Moon River", "Days of Wine and Roses", "Autumn Leaves", and "Hooray for Hollywood” among 1500 other songs.)

The charming docent showed our small group around the Mercer House and its unusual contents. She illustrated each room with well-told and fascinating stories.

The docent was far too careful to ever mention anything about the sensational murder of Danny Hansford, the young lover of Jim Williams, a prominent Savannah antiques dealer who owned the house and was the protagonist of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

A tourist who hadn’t read the book could leave the elegance of Garden City none the wiser about the dark deeds that took place there.

The house was used by Savannah Shriners Temple, then left vacant for a decade before Jim Williams bought it in 1969 for $55,000. He set out to fully restore it over two years.

The property is three stories tall, including the basement where William’s restoration workshop was located, a courtyard and carriage house. It takes up a full city block, the only building in Savannah in private ownership to do so. The main room faces onto Monterey Square with large French windows. There’s a classical portico at the rear for on both the first and second levels.

The docent told the remarkable story of the elegant porcelain dishes in the dining room which came from the famed Nanking Cargo.

In 1752, the ship Geldermalsen set sail from Canton, China in the South China Sea on its return journey to the Netherlands. It struck a reef and sank with its cargo of tea, raw silk, textiles, dried wares, groceries, lacquer and porcelain.

100,000 delicate white porcelain dishes were recovered in 1985 after over 200 years at the bottom of the sea. Jim Williams bought some of those dishes at a Christie’s auction in 1986. He was a collector extraordinaire with a deep attraction to the macabre.

In his collection is the dagger believed to have been used to castrate Rasputin during his assassination. (Rasputin was the Russian priest and healer who captured the affection of the Russian Queen, Tsarina Alexandra.)

And if you want to know more about Jim Williams, the Mercer House and the murder of Denny Hansford in the study, you’ll need to read the book!

My special edition of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is one of a limited-edition of 2500 copies specially bound books signed by the author numbered from one to 2500. My copy is #1358. It is contained in a lovely slipcover with a green statue from the garden, both on the cover of the book and on the slipcover.

Much good news about my second novel, The Fulcrum!

Recently, my publisher told me we’re now permitted to claim ‘Best Seller’ status as The Fulcrum ranked number four on Amazon in both categories of Environmental Thrillers and Natural Disasters.

This was very exciting and gratifying, as are the positive reviews that continue to arrive. I’ve also confirmed an August 23rd book launch at the wonderful BookLore in Orangeville. The invitation is below; I hope you’ll join me!

Also delighted to share this review of The Fulcrum by Muriel Smith, Former Deputy Premier of Manitoba

After decades working on public policy and in senior level management, Michael Decter has written a second novel that has something for everyone – and a little bit more. First, there’s a great love story, with some Irish poetry and mystery. Then there’s a plot that offers not only challenges but some surprising engineering feats in the face of a deadly #5 hurricane approaching Florida and cooperation among the powers that be. In short, a lesson as to how we should approach climate change, not with despair but decidedly with ingenuity and “all hands-on deck.”

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Happy reading in the lazy summer days of August!

Michael