diff --git a/src/calibre/__init__.py b/src/calibre/__init__.py
index f84941d371..34801d39ca 100644
--- a/src/calibre/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/__init__.py
@@ -413,15 +413,13 @@ def entity_to_unicode(match, exceptions=[], encoding='cp1252',
         return check("'")
     if ent == 'hellips':
         ent = 'hellip'
-    if ent.lower().startswith(u'#x'):
-        num = int(ent[2:], 16)
-        if encoding is None or num > 255:
-            return check(my_unichr(num))
-        return check(chr(num).decode(encoding))
-    if ent.startswith(u'#'):
+    if ent.startswith('#'):
         try:
-            num = int(ent[1:])
-        except ValueError:
+            if ent[1] in ('x', 'X'):
+                num = int(ent[2:], 16)
+            else:
+                num = int(ent[1:])
+        except:
             return '&'+ent+';'
         if encoding is None or num > 255:
             return check(my_unichr(num))