Banner in the sky

When I was a teenager, I had a book by James Ramsey Ullman called Banner in the Sky.  (I've just discovered it's been reprinted and is available, which is cheering). I loved the book with a passion; I had already, in my strange childhood filled with the usual childhood diseases like measles, whooping cough, mumps et al, read Edward Whymper's account of the first ascent of the Matterhorn, and this was a welcome look at the story in fictionalised form and modern prose. I had it with me once at a Promenade Concert - took it to read while I waited for the concert to begin - and it was the only paper I had on me when I went backstage to ask the conductor Willi Boskovsky for his autograph. He held it aloft, proclaiming "A gute book!" and signed it with a flourish. 

And all this came into my head when I was hanging out washing in the garden and noticed the saltire overhead. I have to confess that I also had a little pagan wish that it might be a good omen ...