diff --git a/manual/conversion.rst b/manual/conversion.rst
index 93d2a3e087..43fd14378d 100644
--- a/manual/conversion.rst
+++ b/manual/conversion.rst
@@ -846,7 +846,8 @@ _SECTION_ is replaced by whatever the name of the current section is. These
 names are taken from the metadata Table of Contents in the document (the PDF
 Outline). If the document has no table of contents then it will be replaced by
 empty text. If a single PDF page has multiple sections, the first section on
-the page will be used.
+the page will be used. Similarly, there is a variable named _TOP_LEVEL_SECTION_
+that can be used to ge the name of the current top-level section.
 
 You can even use javascript inside the header and footer templates, for
 example, the following template will cause page numbers to start at 4 instead
diff --git a/resources/compiled_coffeescript.zip b/resources/compiled_coffeescript.zip
index a000d7c168..b93b2a8de9 100644
Binary files a/resources/compiled_coffeescript.zip and b/resources/compiled_coffeescript.zip differ
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/display/paged.coffee b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/display/paged.coffee
index 88d7090d58..2985179706 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/display/paged.coffee
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/display/paged.coffee
@@ -309,11 +309,12 @@ class PagedDisplay
             title = py_bridge.title()
             author = py_bridge.author()
             section = py_bridge.section()
+            tl_section = py_bridge.tl_section()
         if this.header != null
-            this.header.innerHTML = this.header_template.replace(/_PAGENUM_/g, pagenum+"").replace(/_TITLE_/g, title+"").replace(/_AUTHOR_/g, author+"").replace(/_SECTION_/g, section+"")
+            this.header.innerHTML = this.header_template.replace(/_PAGENUM_/g, pagenum+"").replace(/_TITLE_/g, title+"").replace(/_AUTHOR_/g, author+"").replace(/_TOP_LEVEL_SECTION_/g, tl_section+"").replace(/_SECTION_/g, section+"")
             runscripts(this.header)
         if this.footer != null
-            this.footer.innerHTML = this.footer_template.replace(/_PAGENUM_/g, pagenum+"").replace(/_TITLE_/g, title+"").replace(/_AUTHOR_/g, author+"").replace(/_SECTION_/g, section+"")
+            this.footer.innerHTML = this.footer_template.replace(/_PAGENUM_/g, pagenum+"").replace(/_TITLE_/g, title+"").replace(/_AUTHOR_/g, author+"").replace(/_TOP_LEVEL_SECTION_/g, tl_section+"").replace(/_SECTION_/g, section+"")
             runscripts(this.footer)
 
     fit_images: () ->
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/render/from_html.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/render/from_html.py
index 5cc54aff1d..2fc45f37bb 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/render/from_html.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdf/render/from_html.py
@@ -145,6 +145,10 @@ class PDFWriter(QObject):
     def section(self):
         return self.current_section
 
+    @pyqtSlot(result=unicode)
+    def tl_section(self):
+        return self.current_tl_section
+
     def __init__(self, opts, log, cover_data=None, toc=None):
         from calibre.gui2 import must_use_qt
         must_use_qt()
@@ -169,6 +173,7 @@ class PDFWriter(QObject):
                     Qt.ScrollBarAlwaysOff)
         self.report_progress = lambda x, y: x
         self.current_section = ''
+        self.current_tl_section = ''
 
     def dump(self, items, out_stream, pdf_metadata):
         opts = self.opts
@@ -310,11 +315,12 @@ class PDFWriter(QObject):
                 self.loop.processEvents(self.loop.ExcludeUserInputEvents)
             evaljs('document.getElementById("MathJax_Message").style.display="none";')
 
-    def get_sections(self, anchor_map):
+    def get_sections(self, anchor_map, only_top_level=False):
         sections = defaultdict(list)
         ci = os.path.abspath(os.path.normcase(self.current_item))
         if self.toc is not None:
-            for toc in self.toc.flat():
+            tocentries = self.toc.top_level_items() if only_top_level else self.toc.flat()
+            for toc in tocentries:
                 path = toc.abspath or None
                 frag = toc.fragment or None
                 if path is None:
@@ -362,6 +368,7 @@ class PDFWriter(QObject):
         if not isinstance(amap, dict):
             amap = {'links':[], 'anchors':{}}  # Some javascript error occurred
         sections = self.get_sections(amap['anchors'])
+        tl_sections = self.get_sections(amap['anchors'], True)
         col = 0
 
         if self.header:
@@ -376,13 +383,16 @@ class PDFWriter(QObject):
         start_page = self.current_page_num
 
         mf = self.view.page().mainFrame()
+
+        def set_section(col, sections, attr):
+            # If this page has no section, use the section from the previous page
+            idx = col if col in sections else col - 1 if col - 1 in sections else None
+            if idx is not None:
+                setattr(self, attr, sections[idx][0])
+
         while True:
-            if col in sections:
-                self.current_section = sections[col][0]
-            elif col - 1 in sections:
-                # Ensure we are using the last section on the previous page as
-                # the section for this page, since this page has no sections
-                self.current_section = sections[col-1][-1]
+            set_section(col, sections, 'current_section')
+            set_section(col, tl_sections, 'current_tl_section')
             self.doc.init_page()
             if self.header or self.footer:
                 evaljs('paged_display.update_header_footer(%d)'%self.current_page_num)
@@ -404,6 +414,3 @@ class PDFWriter(QObject):
         if not self.doc.errors_occurred:
             self.doc.add_links(self.current_item, start_page, amap['links'],
                             amap['anchors'])
-
-
-