J.R.R. Tolkien helped form The Inklings, an informal Oxford literary discussion group that included C.S. Lewis.
The Inklings met mainly at Oxford locations, including the Eagle and Child pub, which members nicknamed the Bird and Baby. The group was not a formal society with membership rules or a published manifesto. Instead, writers and scholars read drafts aloud, discussed literature, and exchanged criticism.
Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were central figures in the group. Other participants included Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and Warren Lewis. Tolkien read portions of his developing fiction to fellow members, giving the group a role in the long gestation of The Lord of the Rings.
The Inklings should not be confused with the Bloomsbury Group, an earlier London-based circle associated with Virginia Woolf and other modernist writers. Nor was it simply a fantasy-writing club: its members discussed Christian writing, poetry, mythology, history, and many other subjects.