diff --git a/python/JSONtoObj.c b/python/JSONtoObj.c
index 9987f27..14338ee 100644
--- a/python/JSONtoObj.c
+++ b/python/JSONtoObj.c
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ static void Object_releaseObject(JSOBJ obj)
 PyObject* JSONToObj(PyObject* self, PyObject *arg)
 {
 	PyObject *ret;
+	PyObject *sarg;
 	JSONObjectDecoder decoder = 
 	{
 		Object_newString,
@@ -93,16 +94,35 @@ PyObject* JSONToObj(PyObject* self, PyObject *arg)
 		PyObject_Realloc
 	};
 
-	if (!PyString_Check(arg))
+	if (PyString_Check(arg))
 	{
-		PyErr_Format(PyExc_TypeError, "Expected string");
+		sarg = arg;
+	}
+	else
+	if (PyUnicode_Check(arg))
+	{
+		sarg = PyUnicode_AsUTF8String(arg);
+		if (sarg == NULL)
+		{
+			//Exception raised above us by codec according to docs
+			return NULL;
+		}
+	}
+	else
+	{
+		PyErr_Format(PyExc_TypeError, "Expected String or Unicode");
 		return NULL;
 	}
 
 	decoder.errorStr = NULL;
 	decoder.errorOffset = NULL;
 	
-	ret = JSON_DecodeObject(&decoder, PyString_AS_STRING(arg), PyString_GET_SIZE(arg)); 
+	ret = JSON_DecodeObject(&decoder, PyString_AS_STRING(sarg), PyString_GET_SIZE(sarg)); 
+
+	if (sarg != arg)
+	{
+		Py_DECREF(sarg);
+	}
 
 	if (decoder.errorStr)
 	{
diff --git a/python/tests.py b/python/tests.py
index 9de5fa1..0b20e71 100644
--- a/python/tests.py
+++ b/python/tests.py
@@ -221,7 +221,12 @@ class UltraJSONTests(TestCase):
         dec = ujson.decode(enc)
         self.assertEquals(enc, json.dumps(input, encoding="utf-8", ensure_ascii=False))
         self.assertEquals(dec, json.loads(enc))
-        
+
+    def test_decodeFromUnicode(self):
+        input = u"{\"obj\": 31337}"
+        dec1 = ujson.decode(input)
+        dec2 = ujson.decode(str(input))
+        self.assertEquals(dec1, dec2)
 
     def test_encodeRecursionMax(self):
         # 8 is the max recursion depth
diff --git a/python/version.h b/python/version.h
index 8e542b7..e9bea5e 100644
--- a/python/version.h
+++ b/python/version.h
@@ -1 +1 @@
-#define UJSON_VERSION "1.10"
+#define UJSON_VERSION "1.11"