Page 268 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

know at the harbour was able to whizz out in a speedboat and tow
us away from danger, but it was getting so close that I had started
to prepare to jump overboard. Ever since then, I have always taken
an experienced captain out with me.
All this activity made me realise just how little time I’d had for
anything outside family and business for my entire adult life. I
couldn’t remember the last time I had read a book, or gone for
over an hour without making a phone call. Although I was packing
a lot in, it was still quite an adjustment to adapt to my new pace
of life, and to adapt to my new financial status as well.
I still didn’t know what I was going to do with the money. What
did it mean to have millions of pounds? What was the best thing
to do with it? I have always made decisions fairly easily, but this
wasn’t something I wanted to rush. I wondered what other people
had done with their wealth. I read up about people who have set
up charitable foundations – like Bill Gates – and those who have
blown the lot, like Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth’s heiress who
inherited £50 million in the 1920s (which must be several billion
in today’s money) and died penniless. I read about a lot of people
who had inherited wealth and who had become depressed, wasted
it or worse: I realised that money could be a burden, especially
when you haven’t had to work for it. As a consequence I started
thinking about my will and my legacy to my family. Did I want
the money to be a burden to Jemma and Hanah? Of course not. I
will provide for them as I will for the rest of my family, but I
couldn’t see that leaving them everything was the right thing to do.
I still didn’t know what I would do with it, though.
I also had time to think about my faith. Since the 11 September
attacks, Islam had acquired an unwelcome prominence. The
phrase ‘British Muslim’ seemed to be on every page of every
newspaper. Aisha has always been more religious than me, but I
have always had a spirituality and there is no doubt that I am a
believer, but what did that mean in the modern world? For the first

258