Helen McCarthy

Helen McCarthy wrote the first book in English on Japanese animation. Anime! A Beginners Guide To Japanese Animation was published by Titan Books in 1993. Before that, she spent twelve years promoting anime and manga. She helped to create British anime fandom and journalism before launching the UK’s first professional anime magazine, Anime UK, in 1991.

Helen’s works include award-winning books on Hayao Miyazaki and Osamu Tezuka. She is co-author of The Anime Encyclopedia and the first book in English on Leiji Matsumoto. She has also contributed to academic works and written a manga cross-stitch guide, two how-to books on drawing and the shortest history of manga on the market. Her latest book, The Manga Bible, came out in March 2026, and an updated edition of her book on Hayao Miyazaki is awaiting publication.

Helen is a storyteller who talks to audiences all over the world about anime and manga. She’s delighted to be in Kilkenny to tell the story of anime’s Journey to the West, and how it echoes the journeys made by monks, kings and scholars from all over the world to Ireland’s great monasteries in search of both spiritual and artistic treasure.