Okay Les1,
In that price range I would personally opt for a Panasonic or a Philips (....as all of their models in that price range appear to rank pretty high).
My suggestion would be to decide on the specification that you want (i.e. size of hard-drive, the CD writing format, whether you want multi-region or not, etc.), and then either buy a review magazine (...there are a few) from your local shop, or search for for similar websites like this:
http://www.dvdrecorderworld.com/reviewlist.php
Also, if you wait out until the Christmas sales you may be able to save yourself a few pounds.
Good luck.