The Ghastling is a biennial short-story magazine that oozes eeriness and dark things. Styled as a modern-day Penny Dreadful, the first issue was published in 2014: the ghoulish brainchild of editor Rebecca Parfitt.
The magazine has gone on to feature writers and artists from across the world, and we published its landmark tenth edition on Hallowe’en 2019.
Meet the Team
Editor & Founder
Rebecca Parfitt has worked in publishing for fifteen years, beginning her career in London. By day, she is commissioning editor for Honno, the UK’s longest running women’s press; by night, she haunts the attic as editor at Ghastling Towers.
Rebecca is also a writer and has published poetry and short stories. Her first poetry collection The Days After was published by Listen Softly London in April 2017. She is a recipient of the Hay Festival Writers at Work residency. In 2019 she was awarded funding to complete her collection of dark and uncanny stories, Sometimes they arrive late and other macabres. Two of the stories from the collection have appeared in New Gothic Review Vols 1 & 2 in 2020. In August 2020 her first film (based on one of her short stories) Feeding Grief to Animals was commissioned by the BBC and FfilmCymru Wales. She loves ghost stories, quiet horror, the strange, the uneasy and the macabre. She lives and works on a drafty mountainside in the south Wales valleys with her partner and young children. In her free time she can be found at the circus, usually hanging upside down on the ropes…
Graphic Designer
ANDREW ROBINSON is a printmaker and graphic designer. A self-taught artist specialising in linocut prints, his interests and influences stem from wildlife, printed ephemera, mythology, and all things creepy or otherworldly. Andrew inhabits the eastern wilds of Canada with his partner and two daughters. A selection of his work can be seen at monografik.ca.
Editorial Assistant
Tracey Rees is an aspiring writer of short stories and poetry and works as an editor for an online medical education provider. Tracey joined The Ghastling team as an editorial assistant in 2022. She lives with her husband and two feline friends near the whispering woods in South Wales, where she can often be found seeking out nocturnal animals for morbid conversations during her bouts of insomnia. When not busy doing those things Tracey is passionate about classic horror movies, spooky tales, travelling, drinking tea, and re-arranging the furniture.
Social Media Manager
Jen Smith-Furmage is The Ghastling’s Social Media and Marketing Manager, a freelance publishing person, and feminist educator. When not thinking about horror or planning Ghastling content, you’ll probably find Jen lecturing in colleges and schools about her ultimate nemesis, the patriarchy.
Jen lives in South West England (she could probably throw you to Avebury Stone Circle from her house) with her black pug and brood of unruly children. She is a vegan, a pagan, and a voracious reader.
Sound Design & Music: Audio Stories
Alex Gillinder has always been obsessed with horror, with a particular fondness for the works of M. R. James and Clive Barker. A struggling reader, they devoured audiobooks from an early age, and are proud to be contributing to the tremendous work that goes into The Ghastling with their music composition and sound design. They live in the North East with their partner and two beautiful cats, and would love to illustrate comics for a living.
The Ghastling 
[…] asked if I could go first, while my nerves held out. Rebecca Parfitt, editor of The Ghastling, (a new literary magazine devoted to ghost stories, the macabre and the oh-so peculiar) introduced […]