To John MacKenzie: Thank heavens I took care not to appear dismissive of your suggestion, above - to expand a little, I had previously wondered whether a knock/jolt/bump (as in bouncing into a pothole in the road) could have caused an automatic device to shut off the fuel supply, one of the suggections mentioned in the manual for a failure to start; as far as I remember, there's a little lever near to the passenger door to reset this safety device and allow fuel to be fed again. The dealer told me that this device is only found in the petrol version, and (as you'll have guessed) I in my ignorance assumed that this was one of the possibilities you had thought of. Once again, many thanks for your interest and information,

M D