Hi Craig - and I would like to add my welcome to the guys above.
When you start thinking about getting your first smoker most people don't realise that the temperature control is one of the most important things. It is not like using a grill BBQ where you simply light the charcoal and move it around a bit - what you are trying to achieve is something similar to your kitchen oven with a fairly good temperature control that will enable you to maintain a constant temperature of around 110 C over a period of 4-6 hours. In order to do this effectively you need your smoker to have a good balance of coal basket design, air intake control, exhaust control and the placing of the meat inside. What has been alluded to above is that with some models, out of the box, this can be quite difficult to do and they need to have some fairly serious modifications to rectify some basic design limitations. Many people do buy them and make the mods but others just think that they must be doing something wrong and end up giving up smoking before they have given it a chance.
I don't know your circumstances - you may be an engineer who would be able to make the necessary mods in your sleep or knock up a UDS in an afternoon. It would be great if you were - but most most people who want to start smoking are not.
When you first start it can be tempting to go for the cheapest model thinking that you will upgrade later, however in my opinion this is a false economy. It would be better to spend a little more up front and then enjoy your hobby right from the start. You are talking of a Brinkmann so it looks like you are leaning towards a bullet type smoker rather than an offset. To begin with this is a good choice. I would recommend that before you buy that you take a look at either the
Weber Smokey Mountain (
WSM) (~£375) or the ProQ Frontier (~£250). Yes the
WSM is very expensive but you will be buying the top of the range. The Frontier is very similar in design but is less expensive. The build quality of the Fronties is not as good as the
WSM however a lot of people do use them successfully here in competitions.
Another option would be so start with a standard
Weber kettle grill (~£130). I do a lot of my smoking in these and they are very versatile and the temperature is easy to control. You should go for the 57cm though in order to give you the cooking space that you need. The Weber Original Kettle is fine - the Premium versions do not really add anything that is useful.
Charcoal is another topic altogether and Danny has given some good advice there. The important thing at this stage though is you get you the right hardware and then we can discuss what you burn in it.
Budget for a good digital thermometer though (Maverick ET-732 or 733) as these will be your best friend when smoking (~£50).