diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/debug/mobi8.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/debug/mobi8.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e4a92ee95c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/debug/mobi8.py
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# vim:fileencoding=UTF-8:ts=4:sw=4:sta:et:sts=4:ai
+from __future__ import (unicode_literals, division, absolute_import,
+                        print_function)
+
+__license__   = 'GPL v3'
+__copyright__ = '2012, Kovid Goyal <kovid@kovidgoyal.net>'
+__docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
+
+import sys, os
+
+from calibre.ebooks.mobi.debug.headers import TextRecord
+
+class MOBIFile(object):
+
+    def __init__(self, mf):
+        self.mf = mf
+        h, h8 = mf.mobi_header, mf.mobi8_header
+        first_text_record = 1
+        offset = 0
+        res_end = len(mf.records)
+        if mf.kf8_type == 'joint':
+            offset = h.exth.kf8_header_index
+            res_end = offset - 1
+
+        self.resource_records = mf.records[h.first_non_book_record:res_end]
+        self.text_records = [TextRecord(i, r, h8.extra_data_flags,
+            mf.decompress8) for i, r in
+            enumerate(mf.records[first_text_record+offset:
+                first_text_record+offset+h8.number_of_text_records])]
+
+        self.raw_text = b''.join(r.raw for r in self.text_records)
+
+    def print_header(self, f=sys.stdout):
+        print (str(self.mf.palmdb).encode('utf-8'), file=f)
+        print (file=f)
+        print ('Record headers:', file=f)
+        for i, r in enumerate(self.mf.records):
+            print ('%6d. %s'%(i, r.header), file=f)
+
+        print (file=f)
+        print (str(self.mf.mobi8_header).encode('utf-8'), file=f)
+
+
+def inspect_mobi(mobi_file, ddir):
+    f = MOBIFile(mobi_file)
+    with open(os.path.join(ddir, 'header.txt'), 'wb') as out:
+        f.print_header(f=out)
+
+    alltext = os.path.join(ddir, 'raw_text.html')
+    with open(alltext, 'wb') as of:
+        of.write(f.raw_text)
+
+    for tdir, attr in [('text_records', 'text_records'), ('images',
+        'image_records'), ('binary', 'binary_records'), ('font',
+            'font_records')]:
+        tdir = os.path.join(ddir, tdir)
+        os.mkdir(tdir)
+        for rec in getattr(f, attr, []):
+            rec.dump(tdir)
+
+