Across the Great Divide

Julia Phyllis Crabtree was born in England, UK. Her early childhood was uneventful, she remembered, until her father came home one day and began talking about emigrating to Australia. When they eventually arrived in Australia, Kerry took to her new land with a passion. During the family's first years "down under," she explored as much of the country as she could, journeying northward into Queensland and out onto the Great Barrier Reef, and sometimes south through New South Wales into Victoria. As a adult she returned to England for a short time. A long working holiday enabled her to travel the world before returning to Australia where she met her engineer husband-to-be, and they had a couple of kids. The family eventually moved to a rural area and she started to write. She used the people and countryside as inspiration for her romances. She was published by Mills & Boon from 1976 to 1994 as Kerry Allyne.