The Inklings were the Oxford writers’ group that included J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.
The group was an informal literary discussion circle rather than a club with a formal membership list or constitution. Its members and guests met mainly at Oxford locations, including the Eagle and Child pub, which they nicknamed the Bird and Baby. They read works in progress aloud, discussed literature and mythology, and offered criticism.
Tolkien read portions of The Lord of the Rings to fellow Inklings during the long process of writing it. C.S. Lewis was another central member, and Charles Williams and Owen Barfield were also associated with the group. Their meetings helped create a setting in which imaginative and explicitly Christian writing could be discussed seriously.
The Inklings were not the Bloomsbury Group, which was a different intellectual and artistic circle centered largely in London. Nor were they the Pre-Raphaelites, an earlier artistic movement.