The Inklings was the collective name commonly given to C.S. Lewis’s Oxford literary discussion group.
The Inklings met in Oxford, especially in Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen College and at the Eagle and Child pub. Members read drafts aloud, discussed literature, and offered criticism. The group was active mainly during the 1930s and 1940s.
J.R.R. Tolkien was one of Lewis’s closest fellow Inklings. Other associated members included Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, Hugo Dyson, and Warren Lewis, C.S. Lewis’s brother. Membership was informal rather than a fixed official roster.
The group’s name is sometimes treated as if it referred only to fantasy writers, but its conversations covered poetry, theology, myth, language, and literary criticism. The Bloomsbury Group and the Fabian Society were separate British intellectual circles.