diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py
index 16bfb42d1f..7f13cefcaa 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py
@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ class Dehyphenator(object):
         dehyphenated = str(firsthalf) + str(secondhalf)
         # Add common suffixes to the regex below to increase the likelihood of a match -   
         # don't add suffixes which are also complete words, such as 'able' or 'sex'
-        removesuffixes = re.compile(r"((ed)?ly|(')?s|a?(t|s)ion(s|al(ly)?)?|ings?|(i)?ous|(i|a)ty|(it)?ies|ive|gence|istic|(e|a)nce|ment(s)?|ism|ated|(e|u)ct(ed)?|ed|(i|ed)?ness|(e|a)ncy|ble|ier|al|ex)$", re.IGNORECASE)
+        removesuffixes = re.compile(r"((ed)?ly|('e)?s|a?(t|s)ion(s|al(ly)?)?|ings?|(i)?ous|(i|a)ty|(it)?ies|ive|gence|istic|(e|a)nce|ment(s)?|ism|ated|(e|u)ct(ed)?|ed|(i|ed)?ness|(e|a)ncy|ble|ier|al|ex)$", re.IGNORECASE)
         lookupword = removesuffixes.sub('', dehyphenated)
         # remove prefixes if the prefix was not already the point of hyphenation
         prefixes = re.compile(r'^(un|in|ex)$', re.IGNORECASE)
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/utils.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/utils.py
index f9178ead0b..6a5eaa4a34 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/utils.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/utils.py
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ class PreProcessor(object):
         html = re.sub(ur'\s*<o:p>\s*</o:p>', ' ', html)
         # Get rid of empty span, bold, & italics tags
         html = re.sub(r"\s*<span[^>]*>\s*(<span[^>]>\s*</span>){0,2}\s*</span>\s*", " ", html)
-        html = re.sub(r"\s*<[ibu]>\s*(<[ibu]>\s*</[ibu]>\s*){0,2}\s*</[ibu]>", " ", html)
+        html = re.sub(r"\s*<[ibu][^>]*>\s*(<[ibu][^>]*>\s*</[ibu]>\s*){0,2}\s*</[ibu]>", " ", html)
         html = re.sub(r"\s*<span[^>]*>\s*(<span[^>]>\s*</span>){0,2}\s*</span>\s*", " ", html)
 
         # If more than 40% of the lines are empty paragraphs then delete them to clean up spacing
@@ -139,16 +139,16 @@ class PreProcessor(object):
         #
         # Start with most typical chapter headings, get more aggressive until one works
         if self.html_preprocess_sections < 10:
-            chapdetect = re.compile(r'(?=</?(br|p))(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>)\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<chap>(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*.?(Introduction|Synopsis|Acknowledgements|Chapter|Epilogue|Volume|Prologue|Book\s|Part\s|Dedication)\s*([\d\w-]+\:?\s*){0,8}\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</span>)?\s*(</(p|/?br)>)\s*\s*(\s*<p[^>]*>\s*</p>){0,2}\s*(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<title>(<[ibu]>){0,2}(\s*[\w\'\"-]+){1,5}\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(br|p)>))?', re.IGNORECASE|re.VERBOSE)
+            chapdetect = re.compile(r'(?=</?(br|p))(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>)\s*(<[ibu][^>]*>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(<[ibu][^>]*>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<chap>(<[ibu][^>]*>){0,2}\s*.?(Introduction|Synopsis|Acknowledgements|Chapter|Epilogue|Volume|Prologue|Book\s|Part\s|Dedication)\s*([\d\w-]+\:?\s*){0,8}\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</span>)?\s*(</(p|/?br)>)\s*\s*(\s*<p[^>]*>\s*</p>){0,2}\s*(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>\s*(<[ibu][^>]*>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<title>(<[ibu][^>]*>){0,2}(\s*[\w\'\"-]+){1,5}\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(br|p)>))?', re.IGNORECASE|re.VERBOSE)
             html = chapdetect.sub(self.chapter_head, html)
         if self.html_preprocess_sections < 10:
             self.log("not enough chapters, only " + str(self.html_preprocess_sections) + ", trying numeric chapters")
-            chapdetect2 = re.compile(r'(?=</?(br|p))(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>)\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<chap>(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*.?(\d+\.?|(CHAPTER\s*([\dA-Z\-\'\"\?\.!#,]+\s*){1,10}))\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(p|/?br)>)\s*(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<title>(<[ibu]>){0,2}(\s*[\w\'\"-]+){1,5}\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(br|p)>))?', re.UNICODE)
+            chapdetect2 = re.compile(r'(?=</?(br|p))(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>)\s*(<[ibu][^>]*>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<chap>(<[ibu][^>]*>){0,2}\s*.?(\d+\.?|(CHAPTER\s*([\dA-Z\-\'\"\?\.!#,]+\s*){1,10}))\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(p|/?br)>)\s*(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>\s*(<[ibu][^>]*>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<title>(<[ibu][^>]*>){0,2}(\s*[\w\'\"-]+){1,5}\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(br|p)>))?', re.UNICODE)
             html = chapdetect2.sub(self.chapter_head, html)
 
         if self.html_preprocess_sections < 10:
             self.log("not enough chapters, only " + str(self.html_preprocess_sections) + ", trying with uppercase words")
-            chapdetect2 = re.compile(r'(?=</?(br|p))(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>)\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<chap>(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*.?([A-Z#\-\s]+)\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(p|/?br)>)\s*(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<title>(<[ibu]>){0,2}(\s*[\w\'\"-]+){1,5}\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(br|p)>))?', re.UNICODE)
+            chapdetect2 = re.compile(r'(?=</?(br|p))(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>)\s*(<[ibu][^>]*>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<chap>(<[ibu][^>]*>){0,2}\s*.?([A-Z#\-\s]+)\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(p|/?br)>)\s*(<(/?br|p)[^>]*>\s*(<[ibu][^>]*>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(?P<title>(<[ibu][^>]*>){0,2}(\s*[\w\'\"-]+){1,5}\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2})\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</(br|p)>))?', re.UNICODE)
             html = chapdetect2.sub(self.chapter_head, html)
 
         ###### Unwrap lines ######
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ class PreProcessor(object):
         # If still no sections after unwrapping mark split points on lines with no punctuation
         if self.html_preprocess_sections < 10:
             self.log("Looking for more split points based on punctuation, currently have " + str(self.html_preprocess_sections))
-            chapdetect3 = re.compile(r'<(?P<styles>(p|div)[^>]*)>\s*(?P<section>(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(<[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*.?([a-z#-*]+\s*){1,5}\s*\s*(</span>)?(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</span>)?\s*</(p|div)>)', re.IGNORECASE)
+            chapdetect3 = re.compile(r'<(?P<styles>(p|div)[^>]*)>\s*(?P<section>(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(<[ibu][^>]*>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*(<[ibu][^>]*>){0,2}\s*(<span[^>]*>)?\s*.?(?=[a-z#\-*\s]+<)([a-z#-*]+\s*){1,5}\s*\s*(</span>)?(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</span>)?\s*(</[ibu]>){0,2}\s*(</span>)?\s*</(p|div)>)', re.IGNORECASE)
             html = chapdetect3.sub(self.chapter_break, html)
         # search for places where a first or second level heading is immediately followed by another
         # top level heading.  demote the second heading to h3 to prevent splitting between chapter