Stuart Cosgrove: Cassius X – A Legend in the Making

Stuart was Media Editor of NME, an executive at Channel 4, and he presents BBC Scotland’s radio show ‘Off the Ball’.  Following his award-winning soul trilogy, his new research shines a light on how black music lit up the sixties against a backdrop of social and political turmoil and how Cassius Clay, a remarkable witness to the first days of soul music, made his extraordinary transformation into Muhammad Ali.

Stuart will be interviewed by Gerry Foley.

This session is presented in association with the Berwick Educational Association (click for further information)

Stuart is from Perth, Scotland and is a writer and broadcaster. He is the author of The Soul Trilogy – Memphis 68: The Tragedy of Southern Soul, which won the prestigious Penderyn Award as Music Book of the Year 2018. (‘The Mercury Prize for Writers’) The trilogy also includes Detroit 67: The Year that Changed Soul recently nominated as Best Music Book of 2016, and the recently published Harlem 69: The Future of Soul. Stuart was a staff writer with the black music paper Echoes and Media Editor of the NME.

Stuart is a respected television executive mostly with the UK broadcaster Channel 4, where he was a Commissioning Editor for Independent Film, Arts and Entertainment and subsequently Director of Nations and Regions, and then Director of Creative Diversity. He was the Chair of Glasgow’s successful bid to host a permanent Channel 4 presence in the city.  

A graduate of Hull University, he completed a PhD. in modern American theatre history and has since studied at Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania and the John Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Stuart is an Honorary Fellow of John Moores University Liverpool, an Honorary Professor of Stirling University and Honorary Doctor of Arts at Abertay University in his native Scotland.

In 2005 he was named Broadcaster of the Year in the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Awards, In 2012 he won numerous awards including a BAFTA and Royal Television Society award for Channel 4’s coverage of the London Paralympics 2012.