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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

April Fools (novel)

novel by Compton Mackenzie

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ85742520 ↗
Source-derived summary

April Fools is a 1930 comedy novel by the British writer Compton Mackenzie. It is the sequel to his 1919 work Poor Relations.

References

Bibliography

David Joseph Dooley. Compton Mackenzie. Twayne Publishers, 1974.

Andro Linklater. Compton Mackenzie: A Life Hogarth Press, 1992.

Editorial summary

“April Fools (novel)” enters the record as novel by Compton Mackenzie. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what April, Fools and novel can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1930, 1919, 1974, 1992—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1930. Its strongest next move is a source search built around April, Fools and novel.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“April Fools (novel)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, April, Fools and novel provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q85742520. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1930, 1919, 1974 and 1992.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “April Fools (novel)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow April Fools (novel) primary sources, April Fools (novel) archive and April research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “April Fools (novel)”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “April Fools (novel)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.