The Inklings was the Oxford writers’ group that included J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.
The Inklings met mainly in Oxford during the 1930s and 1940s. Members and frequent participants read aloud from works in progress, discussed literature, and exchanged criticism. Tolkien and Lewis were central figures, and the group also included writers such as Charles Williams and Owen Barfield.
Their meetings were associated with rooms at Magdalen College and with the Eagle and Child pub, which members nicknamed the “Bird and Baby.” The group was informal rather than an official university society, and its membership changed over time.
The Inklings did not write a shared manifesto or publish as a collective. Its importance comes from the conversations and friendships that supported major works of twentieth-century literature. The group is sometimes confused with the Bloomsbury Group, a different British intellectual and artistic network centered mainly in London.