Raggie, if you are soldering only small wires and component leads then a fine tipped, 15 - 30 watt iron should work. As snakebite suggested, try an RS kit with instructions and practice on a junk circuit board. RS also has an inexpensive desoldering iron with a squeeze bulb that's good for removing board mounted items. Solder wick or a solder sucker and a regular iron does that too.
Although it's best to begin with a cheap, plug-in type, one of my favorite irons for small, quick, jobs is a WAHL IsoTip portable, battery powered unit. A variety of easily replaceable tips can solder tiny SMDs to 12ga. wire. One model is rechargeable and another one accepts "C" cells.