diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/titlecase.py b/src/calibre/utils/titlecase.py
index 3e01d3a526..1877b2c248 100755
--- a/src/calibre/utils/titlecase.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/titlecase.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 """
 Original Perl version by: John Gruber http://daringfireball.net/ 10 May 2008
 Python version by Stuart Colville http://muffinresearch.co.uk
+Modifications to make it work with non-ascii chars by Kovid Goyal
 License: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
 """
 
@@ -20,7 +21,7 @@ PUNCT = r"""!"#$%&'‘’()*+,\-‒–—―./:;?@[\\\]_`{|}~"""
 SMALL_WORDS = re.compile(r'^(%s)$' % SMALL, re.I)
 INLINE_PERIOD = re.compile(r'[a-z][.][a-z]', re.I)
 UC_ELSEWHERE = re.compile(r'[%s]*?[a-zA-Z]+[A-Z]+?' % PUNCT)
-CAPFIRST = re.compile(r"^[%s]*?([A-Za-z])" % PUNCT)
+CAPFIRST = re.compile(ur"^[%s]*?(\w)" % PUNCT, flags=re.UNICODE)
 SMALL_FIRST = re.compile(r'^([%s]*)(%s)\b' % (PUNCT, SMALL), re.I|re.U)
 SMALL_LAST = re.compile(r'\b(%s)[%s]?$' % (SMALL, PUNCT), re.I|re.U)
 SMALL_AFTER_NUM = re.compile(r'(\d+\s+)(a|an|the)\b', re.I|re.U)