I've long argued that photography is the skill of turning perspective into art. Non-fiction is no different: Barbara Tuchman's prose is colored by the fact that she was a little girl onboard one of the pursuit ships of the Goeben and Breslau. Will Durant wrote the way he did because as a philosopher, he viewed history as one long expression of philosophy. Michael Lewis clearly felt he was a normal street kid who stumbled into way too much power at Lehman Brothers in Liar's Poker; his schtick ever since has been man-on-the-street "you won't believe this shit" prose and it works wonders.

I don't know who you are as a person, but I know that if you write from the perspective of what's important to you it will be a lot more interesting, a lot more engaging and a lot more retentive. I've known a few South Africans and none of them much like talking about home. This makes you unique in my experience. Tell me what you want me to know and it'll be a damn sight more interesting than if you guess what a sociology professor would want me to know.