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Weekend at Thrackley

1934 novel

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 authorityQ110269392
Source-derived summary

Weekend at Thrackley is a 1934 detective novel by the British writer Alan Melville. A whodunit with comic overtones, it takes the form of a country house mystery, a genre at its height during the decade. His debut novel, it was a commercial success and led to him giving up his job in the timber trade to become a full-time writer. It was reissued in 2018 by the British Library Publishing, as part of a group of crime novels from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

Synopsis

Jim Henderson is one of six guests invited by Edwin Carson, an avid collector of precious gems to his gloomy country estate at Thrackley.

Film adaptation

In 1952 it was adapted into the film Hot Ice directed by Kenneth Hume and starring John Justin, Barbara Murray and Ivor Barnard.

References

Bibliography

Clinton, Franz Anthony. British Thrillers, 1950-1979: 845 Films of Suspense, Mystery, Murder and Espionage. McFarland, 2020.

Goble, Alan.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Weekend at Thrackley” as 1934 novel. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Weekend, Thrackley and novel.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1934, 2018, 1952, 1950—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Weekend, Thrackley and novel providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Weekend at Thrackley”, the useful work is to connect “1934 novel” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q110269392. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1934, 2018, 1952 and 1950.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. 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 “Weekend at Thrackley”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Weekend at Thrackley primary sources, Weekend at Thrackley archive and Weekend 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 “Weekend at Thrackley”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Weekend at Thrackley” 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.