I have come across Zoho Books as well since my original post and it seems indeed to be very much a like for like replacement for QB desktop, but with better reviews on the customer service side of things.
I'm just waiting to hear from our accountant to see if it does what it supposed to do in the background, but it's looking very favourable at the moment.

I'm still hoping that Intuit will get their act together this year, otherwise I fear they will lose a lot of customers!