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Throughout this extract from his autobiography, Clive James uses exaggeration, humour, and careful structuring of the ideas in order to create an entertaining text for his readers, which builds towards the anticipated disaster of the ‘crash’.

James uses self-deprecating humour in describing his efforts at building a go-cart compared to the other children’s. While theirs are ‘like a diving aeroplane’ – a simile which emphasises their speed and grace – his is made from a fruit box and ‘old pram’ wheels. The contrast between the two descriptions emphasises how terrible his go-cart is. In terms of the structure of the extract, this establishes our expectations of James, so when we reach the end of the extract where he ‘thought’ he could ‘make the turn’, we realise that he is unlikely to be able to do so, and it is all going to end in disaster.

The simile of the aeroplane also suggests a comic exaggeration for effect, which is another key technique which James uses to entertain the reader. The character of Mrs Braithwaite is another example of this. Although the description of her as a ‘witch’ is dismissed as simply what they thought of her as children, she will also ‘phone the police’ – a real danger – if any of the children touch her poppies. Finally, she might ‘come out shooting’ – a huge exaggeration designed to make the reader laugh, particularly in contrast to the fact that she is an ‘old lady’, who we would expect to be rather less violent.

Mrs Braithwaite is key to the development of tension through the structuring of the ideas in the text. Having shown us that we should not have high expectations of his skill, James then describes the difficulty of the route, and the danger of going wrong and damaging Mrs Braithwaite’s poppies, before making the final dangerous statement that he alone ‘dared make the turn’. The increasing stakes through the text help to create an enjoyable expectation of James crashing.

The autobiography offers a very personal look into an incident from his childhood, and James uses the ordering of ideas, humorous exaggeration, and self-deprecation in order to create an entertaining text which builds to a climax.

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