There is a PGP / GnuPG users group which has been running for a couple of years at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PGP-Basics recommended to me by Imad of iPGP. Went and signed up, and within a few minutes got a list of members willing to help newbies, and a long 'manual' - a list of web links relevant to using PGP. Very clear that they have a strong 'anti-GRTFM' policy. Looks like a group who've got their act together.... Time to go climb that learning curve mountain.
