Ok yeah that sounds possible, i've tried running the script you have above but it doesn't add to my personal dictionary.

The code I have is a follows

#!/usr/bin/perl -w 

use strict;
use Lingua::Ispell qw( :all );  # import all symbols
use_personal_dictionary('.ispell_english');
add_word_lc("shrdlu");
save_dictionary();
for my $r ( spellcheck( "hello hacking perl shrdlu 42" ) ) {
  print "$r->{'type'}: $r->{'term'}\n";
}
[download]

Unfortunately this does not add to the empty .ispell_english file in my home directory. Even with permissions set to chmod 666 and user: nobody, group: other (i.e. same as web server)

Do I need to set a personal_dictionary variable in my ispell local.h file and re- 'make' the ispell installation?

I hate this sys-admin stuff :-( Appreciate the help though thanks!