diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/icu.c b/src/calibre/utils/icu.c
index 8372669258..f306618577 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/icu.c
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/icu.c
@@ -273,6 +273,8 @@ icu_Collator_contractions(icu_Collator *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwargs)
 } // }}}
 
 // Collator.span_contractions {{{
+#ifndef __APPLE__
+// uset_span is not available in the version of ICU on Apple's idiotic OS
 static PyObject *
 icu_Collator_span_contractions(icu_Collator *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwargs) {
     int span_type;
@@ -302,8 +304,9 @@ icu_Collator_span_contractions(icu_Collator *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwa
     ret = uset_span(self->contractions, s, slen, span_type);
     free(s); free(buf);
     return Py_BuildValue("i", ret);
-} // }}}
-
+} 
+#endif
+// }}}
 
 static PyObject*
 icu_Collator_clone(icu_Collator *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwargs);
@@ -325,9 +328,11 @@ static PyMethodDef icu_Collator_methods[] = {
         "contractions() -> returns the contractions defined for this collator."
     },
 
+#ifndef __APPLE__
     {"span_contractions", (PyCFunction)icu_Collator_span_contractions, METH_VARARGS,
         "span_contractions(src, span_condition) -> returns the length of the initial substring according to span_condition in the set of contractions for this collator. Returns 0 if src does not fit the span_condition. The span_condition can be one of USET_SPAN_NOT_CONTAINED, USET_SPAN_CONTAINED, USET_SPAN_SIMPLE."
     },
+#endif
 
     {"clone", (PyCFunction)icu_Collator_clone, METH_VARARGS,
         "clone() -> returns a clone of this collator."
@@ -609,7 +614,10 @@ initicu(void)
     UErrorCode status = U_ZERO_ERROR;
 
     u_init(&status);
-
+    if (U_FAILURE(status)) {
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_RuntimeError, u_errorName(status));
+        return;
+    }
 
     if (PyType_Ready(&icu_CollatorType) < 0)
         return;
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/icu.py b/src/calibre/utils/icu.py
index c4778fcb24..b179ac7b46 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/icu.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/icu.py
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ def load_icu():
     if _icu is None:
         _icu = plugins['icu'][0]
         if _icu is None:
-            print plugins['icu'][1]
+            print 'Loading ICU failed with: ', plugins['icu'][1]
         else:
             if not getattr(_icu, 'ok', False):
                 print 'icu not ok'