Just a quick follow-up.
A package arrived this morning. Inside was a Sony PRS-650.
I had a long chat with a nice chap at the local Sony Centre and discussed options for getting a 950. Bottom line is the warranty wouldn't transfer to the UK if I bought from the US and it would go back to where you purchased the item rather than direct to Sony. After recent nightmares with online purchases I didn't want to risk having a warranty issue so ended up going for the 650.
So it is now on AC charge. It wouldn't charge with the USB attached to a front panel USB port on the computer - no red light, and a error on screen saying "Charging Stopped. The Reader is unable to charge as no power supply is being detected" I used the cable into my 5v HTC Touch Pro2 plug which has a standard USB female and the light's on and it's charging.
All I now have to do is fire up Calibre and convert about 550 mobi files to ePub
I'm so looking forward to getting going and thank you everyone who responded to my OP.
Cheers
Liz