An important aspect of the author's craft is manipulating the pace of the book. He can choose to speed it up or slow it down to achieve different effects. This is a technique that's used in several points in Consider the Lilies. We'll look at one extract in detail to examine how pace is used.

Read the following extract from Chapter 9 and decide first whether Crichton Smith has chosen a quick or slow pace.

The clock on the mantlepiece struck sharply, startling her for a moment and seeming to add urgency to the minister's words. At the same time he went and sat down at the desk, looking at her over it as she had once seen the schoolmaster do when she had gone to ask how Iain was getting on with his lessons. She had to pull the chair around a little to face him. His head was caught in the light, the Roman nose, the face which was still plump without being round, the full lips which were very red, the fine forehead under the fringe of grey hair. She didn't know how to start, and was aware that his fingers were tapping restlessly on the desk in front of him.