How to keep paragraph breaks

[eluser]Mike Cocklin[/eluser]
Ignore me, I am so slow sometimes!!!!

<p class="firstpara">&lt;?php echo nl2br($item->theme_texta);?&gt;</p>
<p class="standardpara">&lt;?php echo nl2br($item->theme_textb);?&gt;</p>

This does it it doesn't it.

Been focusing on it for so long couldn't see the wood for the trees. Many thanks to you both for pointing me in the right direction.