Recovering data on Samsung Galaxy S II GT-I9100P without USB connection
Phone is now working.  Photos and contacts still intact.  Here's what happened:

I gave up and selected "Wipe data/factory reset" from the Android recovery menu (turn phone on whilst holding down power, vol up and home button at the same time).  

I fully expected this to erase my data (photos and contacts included), but at least get my phone working again.  However, the phone is now factory reset, but all contacts and photos are still there.