diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/markdownml.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/markdownml.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2ea3e7dafe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/markdownml.py
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+__license__ = 'GPL 3'
+__copyright__ = '2009, John Schember <john@nachtimwald.com>'
+__docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
+
+'''
+Transform OEB content into Markdown formatted plain text
+'''
+
+import re
+
+from lxml import etree
+
+from calibre.utils.html2text import html2text
+
+class MarkdownMLizer(object):
+
+    def __init__(self, log):
+        self.log = log
+
+    def extract_content(self, oeb_book, opts):
+        self.log.info('Converting XHTML to Markdown formatted TXT...')
+        self.oeb_book = oeb_book
+        self.opts = opts
+
+        return self.mlize_spine()
+
+    def mlize_spine(self):
+        output = [u'']
+        for item in self.oeb_book.spine:
+            self.log.debug('Converting %s to Markdown formatted TXT...' % item.href)
+            html = unicode(etree.tostring(item.data, encoding=unicode))
+            if self.opts.remove_links:
+                html = re.sub(r'<\s*a[^>]*>', '', html)
+                html = re.sub(r'<\s*/\s*a\s*>', '', html)
+            output += html2text(html)
+        output = u''.join(output)
+
+        return output
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/output.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/output.py
index 3c0d475460..a6f52f92ca 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/output.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/output.py
@@ -48,6 +48,11 @@ class TXTOutput(OutputFormatPlugin):
         OptionRecommendation(name='markdown_format',
             recommended_value=False, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
             help=_('Produce Markdown formatted text.')),
+        OptionRecommendation(name='remove_links',
+            recommended_value=False, level=OptionRecommendation.LOW,
+            help=_('Remove links within the document. This is only ' \
+            'useful when paried with the markdown-format option because' \
+            'links are removed with plain text output.')),
      ])
 
     def convert(self, oeb_book, output_path, input_plugin, opts, log):