Then I have the sides which I would like to grow to whatever length is required to match the text, as well as the background.
There are several methods to drag down the side borders/images to the same height as a middle content div, See items 17 and 18 here:-
http://www.wickham43.net/firefoxbackground.php
In some examples the two side divs are wide, but could be narrow with just a border image or color.
Also items 12 and 13 here:-
http://www.wickham43.net/specialeffects.php
(Item 13b uses the same nesting code as item 17a on the previous link).
You need to be careful calculating the widths of the divs.
Code downloaded to my PC will be deleted in due course.
WIN7; IE9, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Safari for Windows; screen resolution usually 1366*768.
Also IE6 on W98 with 800*600 and IE8 on Vista 1440*900.