STERLING Seagrave believes he is an American by accident; a look at the impressive list of books he has researched and written shows in which part of the world his interests really lie.
They include studies of the last empress Ci Xi, Chinese revolutionaries, the Soong family and, maybe most controversially, the Marcos dynasty.
But it is not so much the subjects of his life's work that prove Seagrave's point.
It is his affiliation to Burma, his birthplace, a country he left while still a child and which he has not seen since.
It was a traumatic parting. His American, surgeon father was running a hospital near the China-Burma border when civil war broke out following the withdrawal of the British colonial forces there.
A 10-year-old then and capable of speaking Burmese, some Thai and the Chinese Yunnan dialect, Seagrave was sent off to the United States together with his four other siblings.
Seven generations of the Seagraves had been in Burma, the first landing there as missionaries. Their family members were ousted from the country, however, in the 60s, by the totalitarian military regime.