diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/ipc/pool.py b/src/calibre/utils/ipc/pool.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..02a2a0b4fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/ipc/pool.py
@@ -0,0 +1,313 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# vim:fileencoding=utf-8
+from __future__ import (unicode_literals, division, absolute_import,
+                        print_function)
+
+__license__ = 'GPL v3'
+__copyright__ = '2014, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>'
+
+import os, cPickle, sys
+from threading import Thread, RLock
+from collections import namedtuple
+from Queue import Queue
+
+from calibre import detect_ncpus, as_unicode, prints
+from calibre.utils import join_with_timeout
+from calibre.utils.ipc import eintr_retry_call
+
+Job = namedtuple('Job', 'id module func args kwargs')
+Result = namedtuple('Result', 'value err traceback')
+WorkerResult = namedtuple('WorkerResult', 'id result is_terminal_failure worker')
+TerminalFailure = namedtuple('TerminalFailure', 'message tb job_id')
+
+class Failure(Exception):
+
+    def __init__(self, tf):
+        Exception.__init__(self, tf.message)
+        self.details = tf.tb
+        self.job_id = tf.job_id
+
+class Worker(object):
+
+    def __init__(self, p, conn, events, name):
+        self.process, self.conn = p, conn
+        self.events = events
+        self.name = name or ''
+
+    def __call__(self, job):
+        eintr_retry_call(self.conn.send, job)
+        if job is not None:
+            self.job_id = job.id
+            t = Thread(target=self.recv, name='PoolWorker-'+self.name)
+            t.daemon = True
+            t.start()
+
+    def recv(self):
+        try:
+            result = eintr_retry_call(self.conn.recv)
+            wr = WorkerResult(self.job_id, result, False, self)
+        except Exception as err:
+            import traceback
+            result = Result(None, as_unicode(err), traceback.format_exc())
+            wr = WorkerResult(self.job_id, result, True, self)
+        self.events.put(wr)
+
+class Pool(Thread):
+
+    daemon = True
+
+    def __init__(self, max_workers=None, name=None):
+        Thread.__init__(self, name=name)
+        self.lock = RLock()
+        self.max_workers = max_workers or detect_ncpus()
+        self.available_workers = []
+        self.busy_workers = {}
+        self.pending_jobs = []
+        self.events = Queue()
+        self.results = Queue()
+        self.tracker = Queue()
+        self.terminal_failure = None
+
+        self.start()
+
+    def create_worker(self):
+        from calibre.utils.ipc.simple_worker import start_pipe_worker
+        p = start_pipe_worker(
+            'from {0} import run_main, {1}; run_main({1})'.format(self.__class__.__module__, 'worker_main'), stdout=None)
+        sys.stdout.flush()
+        eintr_retry_call(p.stdin.write, cPickle.dumps((self.address, self.auth_key), -1))
+        p.stdin.flush(), p.stdin.close()
+        conn = eintr_retry_call(self.listener.accept)
+        return Worker(p, conn, self.events, self.name)
+
+    def start_worker(self):
+        try:
+            self.available_workers.append(self.create_worker())
+        except Exception:
+            import traceback
+            self.terminal_failure = TerminalFailure('Failed to start worker process', traceback.format_exc(), None)
+            self.terminal_error()
+            return False
+
+    def run(self):
+        from calibre.utils.ipc.server import create_listener
+        self.auth_key = os.urandom(32)
+        self.address, self.listener = create_listener(self.auth_key)
+        with self.lock:
+            if self.start_worker() is False:
+                return
+
+        while True:
+            event = self.events.get()
+            with self.lock:
+                if event is None:
+                    break
+                if self.handle_event(event) is False:
+                    break
+        with self.lock:
+            self.shutdown_workers()
+
+    def handle_event(self, event):
+        if isinstance(event, Job):
+            job = event
+            if not self.available_workers:
+                if len(self.busy_workers) >= self.max_workers:
+                    self.pending_jobs.append(job)
+                    return
+                if self.start_worker() is False:
+                    return False
+            return self.run_job(job)
+        else:
+            worker_result = event
+            self.busy_workers.pop(worker_result.worker)
+            self.available_workers.append(worker_result.worker)
+            self.tracker.task_done()
+            if worker_result.is_terminal_failure:
+                self.terminal_failure = TerminalFailure('Worker process crashed while executing job', worker_result.result.traceback, worker_result.id)
+                self.terminal_error()
+                return False
+            self.results.put(worker_result)
+
+        while self.pending_jobs and self.available_workers:
+            if self.run_job(self.pending_jobs.pop()) is False:
+                return False
+
+    def run_job(self, job):
+        worker = self.available_workers.pop()
+        try:
+            worker(job)
+        except Exception:
+            import traceback
+            self.terminal_failure = TerminalFailure('Worker process crashed while sending job', traceback.format_exc(), job.id)
+            self.terminal_error()
+            return False
+        self.busy_workers[worker] = job
+
+    @property
+    def failed(self):
+        return self.terminal_failure is not None
+
+    def __call__(self, job_id, module, func, *args, **kwargs):
+        '''
+        Schedule a job. The job will be run in a worker process, with the
+        result placed in self.results. If a terminal failure has occurred
+        previously, this method will raise the :class:`Failure` exception.
+
+        :param job_id: A unique id for the job. The result will have this id.
+        :param module: Either a fully qualified python module name or python
+                       source code which will be executed as a module.
+                       Source code is detected by the presence of newlines in module.
+        :param func: Name of the function from ``module`` that will be
+                     executed. ``args`` and ``kwargs`` will be passed to the function.
+        '''
+        job = Job(job_id, module, func, args, kwargs)
+        with self.lock:
+            if self.failed:
+                raise Failure(self.terminal_failure)
+            self.tracker.put(None)
+            self.events.put(job)
+
+    def wait_for_tasks(self, timeout=None):
+        ''' Wait for all queued jobs to be completed, if timeout is not None,
+        will raise a RuntimeError if jobs are not completed in the specified
+        time. Will raise a :class:`Failure` exception if a terminal failure has
+        occurred previously. '''
+        if self.failed:
+            raise Failure(self.terminal_failure)
+        if timeout is None:
+            self.tracker.join()
+        else:
+            join_with_timeout(self.tracker, timeout)
+
+    def terminal_error(self):
+        for worker, job in self.busy_workers.iteritems():
+            self.results.put(WorkerResult(job.id, Result(None, None, None), True, worker))
+            self.tracker.task_done()
+        while self.pending_jobs:
+            job = self.pending_jobs.pop()
+            self.results.put(WorkerResult(job.id, Result(None, None, None), True, worker))
+            self.tracker.task_done()
+        self.shutdown_workers()
+        self.events.put(None)
+
+    def shutdown(self):
+        with self.lock:
+            self.events.put(None)
+            self.shutdown_workers()
+
+    def shutdown_workers(self, wait_time=0.1):
+        for worker in self.available_workers:
+            try:
+                worker(None)
+            except Exception:
+                pass
+        for worker in self.busy_workers:
+            worker.process.terminate()
+        workers = [w.process for w in self.available_workers + list(self.busy_workers)]
+        def join():
+            for w in workers:
+                w.wait()
+        reaper = Thread(target=join, name='ReapPoolWorkers')
+        reaper.daemon = True
+        reaper.start()
+        reaper.join(wait_time)
+        for w in self.available_workers:
+            if w.process.poll() is None:
+                w.process.kill()
+        del self.available_workers[:]
+        self.busy_workers.clear()
+
+def worker_main(conn):
+    from importlib import import_module
+    while True:
+        try:
+            job = eintr_retry_call(conn.recv)
+        except EOFError:
+            break
+        except Exception:
+            prints('recv() failed in worker, terminating worker', file=sys.stderr)
+            import traceback
+            traceback.print_exc()
+            return 1
+        if job is None:
+            break
+        try:
+            if '\n' in job.module:
+                import_module('calibre.customize.ui')  # Load plugins
+                from calibre.utils.ipc.simple_worker import compile_code
+                mod = compile_code(job.module)
+                func = mod[job.func]
+            else:
+                func = getattr(import_module(job.module), job.func)
+            result = func(*job.args, **job.kwargs)
+            result = Result(result, None, None)
+        except Exception as err:
+            import traceback
+            result = Result(None, as_unicode(err), traceback.format_exc())
+        try:
+            eintr_retry_call(conn.send, result)
+        except EOFError:
+            break
+        except Exception:
+            prints('send() failed in worker, terminating worker', file=sys.stderr)
+            import traceback
+            traceback.print_exc()
+            return 1
+    return 0
+
+def run_main(func):
+    from multiprocessing.connection import Client
+    from contextlib import closing
+    address, key = cPickle.loads(eintr_retry_call(sys.stdin.read))
+    with closing(Client(address, authkey=key)) as conn:
+        raise SystemExit(func(conn))
+
+def test():
+    def get_results(pool, ignore_fail=False):
+        ans = {}
+        while not p.results.empty():
+            r = p.results.get()
+            if not ignore_fail and r.is_terminal_failure:
+                print (r.result.err)
+                print (r.result.traceback)
+                raise SystemExit(1)
+            ans[r.id] = r.result
+        return ans
+
+    # Test normal execution
+    p = Pool(name='Test')
+    expected_results = {}
+    for i in range(1000):
+        p(i, 'def x(i):\n return 2*i', 'x', i)
+        expected_results[i] = 2 * i
+    p.wait_for_tasks(2)
+    results = {k:v.value for k, v in get_results(p).iteritems()}
+    if results != expected_results:
+        raise SystemExit('%r != %r' % (expected_results, results))
+    p.shutdown(), p.join()
+
+    # Test exceptions in jobs
+    p = Pool(name='Test')
+    for i in range(1000):
+        p(i, 'def x(i):\n return 1/0', 'x', i)
+    p.wait_for_tasks(2)
+    for r in get_results(p).itervalues():
+        if not r.traceback or 'ZeroDivisionError' not in r.traceback:
+            raise SystemExit('Unexpected result: %s' % r)
+    p.shutdown(), p.join()
+
+    # Test worker crash
+    p = Pool(name='Test')
+    for i in range(1000):
+        try:
+            p(i, 'def x(i):\n os._exit(1)', 'x', i)
+        except Failure:
+            break
+    try:
+        p.wait_for_tasks()
+    except Failure:
+        pass
+    results = get_results(p, ignore_fail=True)
+    if not p.failed:
+        raise SystemExit('No expected terminal failure')
+    p.shutdown(), p.join()
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/ipc/worker.py b/src/calibre/utils/ipc/worker.py
index ac190b7b7d..e94095eac2 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/ipc/worker.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/ipc/worker.py
@@ -176,7 +176,11 @@ def main():
         func()
         return
     if '--pipe-worker' in sys.argv:
-        exec (sys.argv[-1])
+        try:
+            exec (sys.argv[-1])
+        except Exception:
+            print 'Failed to run pipe worker with command:', sys.argv[-1]
+            raise
         return
     address = cPickle.loads(unhexlify(os.environ['CALIBRE_WORKER_ADDRESS']))
     key     = unhexlify(os.environ['CALIBRE_WORKER_KEY'])