The United Kingdom is on the brink of disintegration. Ireland has reunited, queues at the Scottish border stretch back for 20 miles and now Kent has declared independence and rebranded as the Democratic Republic of England. There’s a puritanical, totalitarian regime, bankrolled by an oil oligarch, on their doorstep, but MI6 are so broke they can no longer afford offices in London and are renting a warehouse at Gatwick. When an agent makes the mistake of protesting, his punishment is to be sent over the border, where he’s arrested on suspicion of writing a scandalous biography of the DRE’s leader.He’s sent to a prison ship, moored within the blast radius of the wreck of the SS Montgomery and forced to film a series of propaganda videos, knowing that a single word out of place could ignite a full-blown civil war.“ Kippers” is the second novel by Fred Atkins and the sequel to “Welcome to Sorry About The Racists.”