Donald's comical tales describe how basic training horrors give way to a dream job, lashings of sex and even the possibility of a life-long romance.

In this entertaining extract, we hear Donald describe six weeks of Hell before transferring to a dream job in Navy Heaven.

Already undisposed to forming relationships, Donald instead had to do his National Service. Through fatherly connections he wangled a place in the Royal Navy, the first six weeks of which meant descending into the hell of Basic Training. Getting off to a bad start by turning up at the wrong camp and a day late, Donald further blotted his copybook when he reported to Petty Officer 'Penguin'. The Petty Officer was not amused.

Describing the pedantic tedium of the 'kit-muster', Donald also remembers the 5am yells of 'hubba, hubba, hubba', running on the parade ground carrying full kit and the constant abuse and shouts of 'C'mon Vera. Pick your skirts up!'

To his relief, Donald, after choosing to do nursing, was then posted to the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar, in Gosport, where he realised that all four of his fellow room-mates were gay. Even better, on their first morning at Haslar, their new Petty Officer woke them up with a campy and knowing rendition of 'hubba, hubba, hubba'.

Life in the Royal Navy was now wonderful, according to Donald, and the sex was plentiful. Donald even acquired a more regular lover named Bob, who signed on for a further nine years and was posted to Gibraltar.

Donald, whose National Service time ended after 19 months, saw Bob off at Waterloo Station, pledging his undying love and accepting the ring that Bob gave him. But after the train departed, Donald bumped into someone else on the concourse and had sex with him in the station's toilets.

Born in Bristol in 1941, Donald was born to working class parents of Irish descent and enjoyed a very unconventional upbringing. Donald attended a Catholic junior school and a commercial secondary school, where he learned he could have sex with workmen in the toilets and earn his bus-fare home.

Happily, his family accepted Donald's unconventional sexuality. When Donald was 16, he and his family moved to Streatham, in South London, where, after working in a bookshop and going on the stage, Donald had to do his National Service.

He wangled a place in the Royal Navy, and after an horrific six weeks of basic training, was posted to the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar, in Gosport, Hampshire. Donald enjoyed many sexual encounters while in the Navy and beyond, but never formed any long-lasting relationships.

On leaving the Navy, Donald worked for a building firm before moving back to Bristol. In 1963, Donald got a job working for a black music radio station in Boston, USA, before moving to Canada, after his work permit ran out. He later moved to Los Angeles and unfortunately became heavily addicted to both alcohol and drugs. He also saw many of his friends and acquaintances succumb to AIDS during the 80s.

Donald eventually returned to Bristol and worked for BUPA. Made redundant after a while, Donald took to temping, while in his forties, before finding a job at Arnolfini Arts in Bristol.