The British Are Coming: Six Super Events Featuring England

By Troy Segal

Although we officially parted ways three centuries ago, Americans’ fascination with Great Britain has never died. Herewith, a half-dozen upcoming NYC talks, activities, and lectures that all relate to that scepter’d isle’s denizens, culture, or history.

Tempest In A Teapot: Remember when the Tea Party referred not to a political movement but to a seminal event in the colonies’ break from Britain? Refresh your memory at this New-York Historical Society lecture on the significance of “The Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution”, Oct. 8.

Traute Hoess, Dejan Bucin, Katharina Susewind, Georgios Tsivanoglou in Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Photo Credit: Lesley Leslie Spinks

Rockin’ The Sonnet: Composer Rufus Wainwright and director Robert Wilson discuss their 2009 collaboration, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, a surrealistic opera in which 25 of the Bard’s poems are set and performed (by the Berliner Ensemble) to a variety of musical styles, ranging from cabaret to German medieval ballads, Oct. 8 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).

Winged Creatures: Fantasy illustrator Brian Froud (he designed the movies The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, and wrote the books Faeries and Goblins!), famed for his fanciful spins on Celtic and British fairy tales, has journeyed from his Devon home to launch his newest tome, Brian Froud’s Faeries’ Tales, Oct. 14, at the Society of Illustrators.

Stuff Your Guts: Super-chef Yotam Ottolenghi, whose empire of London delis offers the best takeaway in town (as the Brits say), has a new cookbook out; so what’s a man to do but offer a taste and a talk at The TimesCenter, Oct. 18, and at the 92nd Street Y on Oct. 19?

Funny Fellow: Actor/author/management consultant John Cleese trips — or should we say, silly walks — down memory lane, discussing the Monty Python gang, Fawlty Towers, and more from his new memoir, at The New School, Nov. 4.

The China Syndrome: Ian Cox, professor of art history at the University of Glasgow and consultant to Royal Crown Derby (china makers extraordinaire), talks about the standard-setting place settings created by British firms such as Minton and Doulton in the late 1800s, at this Victorian Society-sponsored lecture, Nov. 11.