A quality hardtail will inspire your confidence , enabling you to relax and stay focus on the tasks ahead.
instead of thinking "Oh sh1t, oh sh1t, oh sh1t, I'm going to die." as to your knees i have arthritis in both mine from horse riding but it never stops me from enjoying my Fav bikes.
please just try a few proper bikes " trust me it will get to be more fun "
Bill, I do appreciate everyone's input, but I'm not sure that you fully understand my situation.
Regarding my knees ... in February this year, a car pulled out right in front of me when I was travelling at speed on my road bike, and I didn't have time to even touch the brakes - all I could do was try to hit it square on. My knees were the first part of my body to hit the front wing of the car. Since that accident, I have had to give up running, which I'm very sad about because I had hoped to run a marathon before my 40th birthday next year, because my knees can't handle the loads that running places on them. Even without running, which leaves me unable to walk if I try to do it, I still can't do things like crouch down or kneel on the floor.
I love MTBing, and I'll carry on doing it as long as it's physically possible for me, but if riding a hardtail is making my knees worse, and there's an alternative that will reduce the load on them, it makes sense to go for the alternative. I don't doubt that a quality hardtail will make me more confident, but my knees will still be doing all the work that would be done by the rear shock on a full suss.
I noticed in your earlier post that you said "hardtails are more fun, as are older steel rigid MTBs". You see, I wouldn't agree with that. My view is, "Why have rigid when you can have comfy suspension?" I even ride a steel road bike with a nice, flexy fork that softens the bumps in the road, and I'm about to replace the wheels so I can run wider tyres on it and soften them even more.
The only reason I've never considered full suss (apart from not being able to afford it) is because I didn't think it was for "the likes of me". Now I've been disabused of that notion and - thanks to a nice driver who had problems using his eyes - I also have some money to spend, full suss seems like the obvious way to go.
And as for trying a few bikes ... I'd be lucky to even try one. Women don't cycle here - in the 2 years I've been here, I've met 3 other female cyclists who live fairly locally, and hundreds of men. So, the shops don't tend to stock small bikes. (The bike I rode on Sunday that's a bit big for me is a 39cm frame, so I need a seriously small bike.) This being Spain, the shops also don't order bikes in just so a potential customer can try them. It just isn't the way things are done.
So, choosing a new bike is going to be down to lots of discussion on here, lots of reading manufacturers' websites and studying geometry charts, and then making a decision. That's how I chose the Surly, and that's been a complete success, so I won't hesitate to do it again.
That won't change with FS, you'll just be travelling faster while you think it.
On trails I don't know I often find myself thinking "OMFG I'm gonna die."
It's nice to know I'll still be able to scare myself witless on a quality bike
I suppose it's inevitable really, since my goal in cycling is usually to go further up the mountain than I've ever been before. And what goes up has to come down!
Full bouncers for leisure riders , HTs for ...... 
