Bodmin’s Tracey Ceaton even managed to mess up meeting the Queen

Most people would keep quiet about the time things went wrong in front of the Queen. Tracey Ceaton put it in a book.

The Bodmin author has just published her first book, Always in a Scrape, a collection of 37 completely true stories about the ridiculous situations she somehow keeps getting herself into. And there are plenty to choose from.

📷The cover of Always in a Scrape by Tracey Ceaton

It started with gin and a bestie

The book didn’t come from a quiet moment of reflection. It came after a gin-fuelled evening with her bestie, who finally convinced Tracey that she really ought to write all these stories down.

“I honestly didn’t know whether anybody would buy it,” Tracey said.

More than 200 copies in about a month

Plenty of people did. In roughly its first month, more than 200 copies have sold, and the book now has 16 five-star reviews on Amazon.

One reader described it as “laugh out loud, mascara-wrecking hilarity”. Another said: “Everyone needs a Tracey in their life.”

“Ahh isn’t that nice?” said Tracey.

Tuk-tuks, a doctor’s surgery and Windsor Castle

The stories range from chaos at the doctor’s surgery to massages in Thailand, with a crazed tuk-tuk driver thrown in for good measure. Then there’s the day she met the Queen at Windsor Castle, and somehow managed to mess that up too.

The book follows Tracey through childhood, office life, holidays and marriage (not necessarily in that order), leaving a path of destruction behind her. Every story really happened. Every character is real.

“Think Bridget Jones, but not posh, with more gin, and my scrapes are way worse!” she said.

Welcome to Tracey World

To cope with it all, Tracey disappears into what she calls “Tracey World”, the place her brain wanders off to whenever she’s trying to dodge an embarrassing situation.

It rarely helps. In fact, it usually makes things worse.

Some of the stories should make readers laugh out loud. Some will almost certainly make them cringe. And a few may even bring a tear to the eye.

More scrapes on Facebook

Tracey has also been sharing some of her scrapes through short videos on Facebook. Individual videos regularly reach hundreds of viewers, and some have gone into the thousands.

“I’m good fun, honest!” she said.

Where to find Always in a Scrape

Always in a Scrape by Tracey Ceaton is available on Amazon. You might think you can guess how some of the stories end.

Tracey has a warning for anyone thinking of picking it up. “If you’re the sort of person who laughs at someone else’s bad luck… you’re going to love this!”

📷Bodmin author Tracey Ceaton with her two Italian Spinones