Chaos Chris - it would be prudent to get a Class 1 medical as you don't want to pay for anything then find it's all invalid.
flying_shortly - those manuals, aside from being probably well out of date (depends where they came from) are likely useless because you still need a signature from an approved school to take the exams, unless you are exempt from formal study. Even then, you would be very unwise to do the exams without some classroom stuff. By all means use them as a backup because sometimes a different set of notes makes something click a little better.
Phil