James Meek: ‘You read wide and deep, then almost try to forget it’

The author on creating a believable medieval world for his new novel and how he always returns to TolstoyTo Calais, in Ordinary Time is James Meek’s sixth novel. Set in 1348, it’s the story of three young people from very different backgrounds – an aristocrat, a farmer turned mercenary, and a proctor – making their way across England to British-held Calais against the backdrop of the hundred years war and the fast-approaching Black Death. Meek was previously the Guardian&