Page 218 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

together; nothing has ever been more important to me than
knowing my family is happy.
I remember picking the girls up from school and in the car on
the way home I asked them how their day had been. Jemma had
had a good day, but Hanah was clearly fed up and it dawned on
me that she’d actually been fed up for a while. It was important
for me that both my kids liked school: they were clearly bright and
I wanted them to make the most of their education, so I was
worried about Hanah’s attitude to school.
‘Why don’t you like school any more, darling?’
‘It’s just really boring.’
Hanah was slightly more academic than her sister. Jemma had to
work a bit harder to get results, but for Hanah it was just too easy
and she was starting to switch off. Aisha and I decided that she
needed to go to a school that would really push her, and she sat the
entrance exams for City of London School, near St Paul’s. She
passed easily, but that presented us with a new problem: the
commute. Dropping the girls off in Hampstead on the way to the
West End hadn’t been a problem, but now I had to take Jemma to
her school, then Hanah to hers and then get to Alexander House in
Holborn. Whether I did it or Aisha did it, and no matter which route
we used, the journey was about an hour and half in the rush hour.
Jemma also got into City, but even without the detour to
Hampstead it was still taking its toll on us. Reluctantly, we took
the decision that we were going to have to leave the house in
Winchmore Hill and move closer into the centre of London. We
all loved that house, but nothing was more important than making
sure the girls weren’t too exhausted by the early starts and long
commute to get the most out of school. We put the house on the
market and moved to St John’s Wood, just the other side of
Regent’s Park from the West End.
One other thing happened around this time: my mum came
home. As soon as my younger siblings had reached the age of

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