Agnes Keith and her husband, Harry, who was Conservator of Forest and Curator of North Borneo Museum during the time of the British, lived in a two-storey wooden villa of colonial architecture in Sandakan from 1930 to 1952 .

Keith wrote three internationally acclaimed books on Sabah while living in the rebuilt house. Her first book was about life in North Borneo in the 1930s and was called Land Below The Wind. The constant breeze around her home supposedly inspired the title. The Sabah Tourism Promotion Corporation is using the title as a tag line in its promotional efforts with the hope of capitalising on the market drawn by the book. Keith's second book, Three Came Home, was made into a film. White Man Returns was her third book.