Poetry lovers will recall the impact Slake' s first book made. "Tied up in Notts" was, at the time, not merely avant-garde but positively risque. The reason, of course, was Slake's cavalier approach to poetic conventions. For example, his 15 Line Sonnet caused a massive rift in the arts community. While some hailed it as a" hurricane of fresh air", to quote one well-known critic, others were less enthusiastic. Indeed, the President of the New Poets Convention declared that if God had wanted sonnets to have an extra line he would have put it there in the first place.

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