diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/icu.py b/src/calibre/utils/icu.py
index 0fa9262de9..6b9bec13ab 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/icu.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/icu.py
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ __license__   = 'GPL v3'
 __copyright__ = '2010, Kovid Goyal <kovid@kovidgoyal.net>'
 __docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
 
+import sys
+
+is_narrow_build = sys.maxunicode < 0x10ffff
+
 # Setup code {{{
 import sys
 
@@ -250,6 +254,26 @@ def contractions(col=None):
         _cmap[col] = ans
     return ans
 
+def partition_by_first_letter(items, reverse=False, key=lambda x:x):
+    # Build a list of 'equal' first letters by noticing changes
+    # in ICU's 'ordinal' for the first letter.
+    from collections import OrderedDict
+    items = sorted(items, key=lambda x:sort_key(key(x)), reverse=reverse)
+    ans = OrderedDict()
+    last_c, last_ordnum = ' ', 0
+    for item in items:
+        c = icu_upper(key(item) or ' ')
+        ordnum, ordlen = collation_order(c)
+        if last_ordnum != ordnum:
+            if not is_narrow_build:
+                ordlen = 1
+            last_c = c[0:ordlen]
+            last_ordnum = ordnum
+        try:
+            ans[last_c].append(item)
+        except KeyError:
+            ans[last_c] = [item]
+    return ans
 
 ################################################################################
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/icu_test.py b/src/calibre/utils/icu_test.py
index 2c24348169..a80851cdf1 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/icu_test.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/icu_test.py
@@ -125,6 +125,9 @@ class TestICU(unittest.TestCase):
                     self.ae(last, order)
                 last = order
 
+        self.ae(dict(icu.partition_by_first_letter(['A1', '', 'a1', '\U0001f431', '\U0001f431x'])),
+                {' ':[''], 'A':['A1', 'a1'], '\U0001f431':['\U0001f431', '\U0001f431x']})
+
     def test_roundtrip(self):
         for r in (u'xxx\0\u2219\U0001f431xxx', u'\0', u'', u'simple'):
             self.ae(r, icu._icu.roundtrip(r))