Hopefully I'll be able to recover the stuff on the hard drive (?) at some point, such as letters/documents and pictures.
Well, this is where I am hoping that the hard disk is actually ok and something else has fritzed.
Spend some money on a USB external 2.5" HD enclosure. Remove HD from laptop and stick it into enclosure. Plug into usb port of another PC and see what happens.
One of these doohickies will do the job, could be the best £10 you spend:-
AKASA AK-ENP2N-SL at PC World - Buy cheap Hard Drive Enclosures - AKASA AK-ENP2N-SL Silver External enclosure for 2.5" Hard Disk Drive