November 5, 2025 |
Scott Pask
The talents of Scott Pask, 58, always take centre stage. A revered scenic and costume designer, he has worked on West End showstoppers and Broadway productions alike, including The Book of Mormon and The Pillowman, both of which he won Tony Awards for.
What makes a great story?
Incredible characters, both onstage and off.
How do you embrace tradition through your practice?
I’ve always loved drawing. I began with a pencil in my hand in school art classes and continued through my architectural training. It’s how I begin each design process, script in hand, sketching conceptual thumbnails in the margins or a close-at-hand notebook during the first read. The drawing process connects me to a lineage of designers and architects I’ve long admired.
Who’s a creative that inspires you?
I’m deeply inspired by the work of Dame Tracey Emin. Her raw, poetic honesty has moved me for many years. Her pieces are so rich with emotional history and constantly remind me of the power of deeply personal storytelling, where each brushstroke builds an emotional and sensory world.
What’s on your reading list?
I’m loving Who Knew by [media mogul] Barry Diller. I’m in its early chapters and enthralled by his family history, navigation of internal struggles and immense ability to absorb and learn every day as he climbs the rungs of the entertainment industry with wonder, intelligence and admiration for his mentors. I love his candid reflections on each lesson that came through challenge and resistance. I’m reading All Fours by Miranda July and I’m entranced by the poetic naturalism of the lives she etches and the impulsive, transformative journey of its lead character. I feel like I’m conspiratorially riding shotgun. And I’m looking forward to the lush, expansive vision of Ocean Vuong’s new novel, The Emperor of Gladness.
Do you have a signature creative style?
As a scenic designer, my first responsibility is to serve the work. That begins with honouring the spatial, narrative requirements of the piece and then exploring something more abstract within it that can shape the onstage world in unexpected, meaningful ways. If I do have a signature, I hope it’s a studied attention to detail, from the overarching concept down to the smallest elements of the set decor and a versatility that allows me to be a stylistic chameleon. Whether I’m creating the satirical world of a musical comedy like The Book of Mormon or a serious period drama like Good Night, and Good Luck with George Clooney, my goal is always to create the most resonant visual language for the story being told.
If you had to analyse your handwriting, what does it say about you?
My handwriting probably reveals my architectural training first – intentional and structured – though its legibility is occasionally tested by a fast New York pace and a few exaggerated lowercase flourishes. I like to think of those as personal style.
from left: Meisterstück Classique fountain pen by MONTBLANC; Scott Pask, scenic and costume designer. Photography by Leonard Veloce
Louis Wise
Wise’s brilliant words have graced the pages of 10 Men on many an occasion. Day to day, you’ll find the talented scribe on the pink pages of the Financial Times where he is the deputy editor of HTSI, having written for the likes of Vogue, the New Statesman and The Sunday Times throughout his career.
When did you first fall in love with writing?
It was so long ago I don’t remember. I recall needing to do it from a very young age. In primary school I wrote a story in a notebook about a German family trying to escape the Nazis; I realise now it was just The Sound of Music, but with no sound or music. After that I wrote an awful lot of postcards to people who didn’t care. But it certainly did something for me.
What makes a great story?
Ideally, a duchess and a shower scene. If that’s not possible, just great style. I find plot a little tiring sometimes.
How do you embrace tradition through your practice?
I try to write decent sentences, which is hopefully a start. I try to ventriloquise much sharper, more precise writers of the past, and fail. And, as said, I send postcards! Although my parents say my writing is now totally illegible. I blame decades of senseless typing.
Who’s a writer that inspires you?
Muriel Spark seems to synthesise so much into so little, she can suggest whole worlds in a sentence. She can also somehow be both spiritual and funny. I’m very jealous and, although she’s dead, I wish she liked me.
What’s on your reading list?
I just bought some novels by Laurie Colwin, because I like the synopses and the cover art. I can be a real cover art snob, and I think that’s important. I’d like to read the new Shon Faye, Love in Exile, and I also want to find a history of the Hapsburgs, because they’ve fascinated me since I was a kid. A bit fat, a bit incestuous: what’s not to love?
Do you have a signature creative style?
If I did, I’d cringe to define it.
If you had to analyse your handwriting, what does it say about you?
Chaotic, sloppy, fading fast… but also loose and fun, and quite happy to be vaguely incomprehensible.
Louis Wise, deputy editor, Financial Times HTSI; notebook by MONTBLANC. Photography by Jermaine Francis
from top: Crossbody Mini bag, notebook and Heritage Rouge et Noir Baby special edition fountain pen by MONTBLANC. Photography by Jermaine Francis
David Larbi
Across Instagram and TikTok, David Larbi’s joyous musings on the everyday and his radiant poetry work has amassed him a following of 1.6 million. It also landed the 27-year-old wordsmith a Penguin deal, releasing Frequently Happy, a compilation of “52 mindful moments” that’ll make even the rainiest of days feel a little sun-kissed.
When did you fall in love with writing?
When I was a child. I spent most of my free time in the library. My mum used to take us all the time and reading was and still is my favourite hobby. I was always creating my own stories and started writing poetry that I can remember when I was in Year 4 [eight years old].
What makes a great story?
A character or characters that make you feel strongly.
How do you embrace tradition through your practice?
Everything you create comes from what you’ve consumed that has inspired you. I studied literature throughout my educational career and have enjoyed it throughout my life outside of that, so I am constantly learning from the skills and techniques of the classical and contemporary authors that came before me.
Who’s a writer that inspires you?
C.S. Lewis. His ability to place the profound within the entertaining without making his writing feel directly instructive is hard to find equal for.
What’s on your reading list?
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I’ve been re-reading the classics – I just finished Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – and that is next on my list.
Do you have a signature creative style?
I want everyone who comes across anything I create to go away feeling better than they did before.
If you had to analyse your handwriting, what does it say about you?
I’m left-handed, but meticulous.
David Larbi, poet and author; Crossbody Mini bag, notebook, Meisterstück gold-coated fountain pen and 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen Mount Vinson limited edition watch by MONTBLANC. Photography by Jermaine Francis
Writing Traveller bag, belt, notebook, 1858 Geosphere 0 Oxygen Mount Vinson limited edition watch and Meisterstück gold-coated fountain pen by MONTBLANC. Photography by Jermaine Francis
Bolu Babalola
You might wonder when Bolu Babalola, 34, puts her pen down. Since 2020, the British-Nigerian author, screenwriter and journalist has released two novels and the anthology Love in Colour landed her on the Sunday Times Best Seller List. A self-coined ‘romcomoisseur’, her latest, Sweet Heat, is an unexpected tale of rekindled love.
When did you fall in love with writing?
At seven or eight in an English class. We were given a creative writing prompt on a haunted house – it must have been around Halloween. I was a nerd and wanted to do so well, so I was determined to make this assignment my bitch, so to speak. It was about a group of friends, a little funny, a non-scary twist at the end… less of a horror and more a cute mystery caper. While writing, I felt like I was soaring. My palms got all sweaty and I knew it was good. I can’t claim to always have that confidence now, but I was discovering a new part of my soul, something I was supposed to do.
What makes a great story?
Authenticity and true knowledge of the characters. You have to know the world you’ve written and the people who inhabit it, inside out. The story has to be its own living breathing thing and that comes from intimate knowledge, thinking deeply about the characters and having information about them that may not even end up in the book! Then, you have to let them do them. Don’t force a character to do something that doesn’t make sense because you have a specific plot in mind – it reads as inauthentic and messes with the integrity of the world. Follow through with what you have created and let the plot flow through that.
How do you embrace tradition through your practice?
I learn a little more about myself with each book, so I am still forming my own traditions. As much as we can talk about technique, paradigms and form, writing is a deeply personal thing and should be fluid, we should be open to evolving as we create. That said, rather retroactively, I’ve realised the way I write – a little lyrically, very specifically descriptive – is very Nigerian, particularly Yoruba, which I am by heritage. Yoruba is a florid, musical, poetic language. It takes you the long way round to say something just so you can feel what is being communicated. You want to say you’re happy? You say, “The inside of [my soul] is sweet.” It feels deeper, conveys more. You want to say you’re hungry? You say, “Hunger is killing me.” We have a flair for drama. I embrace that part of my writing. It’s an instinct that has been embedded in me through culture and blood, and I have personalised it, made it mine. I am proud of it.
What’s on your reading list?
Necessary Fiction by Eloghosa Osunde. A Nigerian writer whose work I adore – tremendous skill! Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, as I’ve not read enough speculative fiction and want to seek inspiration beyond my usual horizons.
Do you have a signature creative style?
Funny, long sentences, poetic, into the sinews of emotion and attraction.
If you had to analyse your handwriting, what does it say about you?
I think faster than I write. I am desperately trying to get every word in me out there, whatever the cost – even if the cost is looking pretty.
Taken from 10 Men Issue 62 – BIRTHDAY, EVOLVE, TRANSFORMATION – out on newsstands now. Order your copy here.
Bolu Babalola, author; notebook and Meisterstück The Origin Collection Doué Midsize ballpoint by MONTBLANC. Photography by Jermaine Francis
notebook, Meisterstück The Origin Collection Doué Midsize ballpoint, clutch bag and crossbody bag by MONTBLANC. Photography by Jermaine Francis
