It was the unofficial name given by Gloster test pilot Bill Waterton to the E.1/44, a single-engine (Nene II) fighter. It never had an official name, though 'Ace' was proposed. From memory I think four prototypes were built, but only two flew. the first was written-off when the truck carrying it from the Gloster factory to Boscombe Down for its first flight hit a wall en route, and the last was not completed. The second one had the cruciform tail subsequently adopted on the Meteor F.8. The book you mention might have been Waterton's classic 'The Quick and the Dead'.