Welcome to TheFret, Pongo!
I was in a very similar situation in 2002. I ended up getting an Ibanez jumptart package. I liked the playability of the guitar, especially the thin neck for my beginner's fretting hand.
In the meantime I got rid of, pretty much all the pieces from that package, except for a fuzz pedal and cables. So, if I was to do it again, I would go for a guitar and an amp of slightly higher quality, keepers - in other words.
In either instance, you'll get a ton of good advice.
Guitars: '05 MIA Fender Strat HSS, '04 MIA Fender Strat SSS, '03 Burns Steer, '83 Hondo LP copy (project)
Amps: Fender Blues Jr., Line 6 Spider II 112
Pedals: Boss BD-2, Boss CS-3, Boss DS-1, Ibanez TS9DX, Ibanez AW7, Ibanez FZ7, DigiTech Bad Monkey, BYOC Lazy Sprocket (in progress - almost there), Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus.