diff --git a/emacs/mu4e-send.el b/emacs/mu4e-send.el
index 85420b95..66608c49 100644
--- a/emacs/mu4e-send.el
+++ b/emacs/mu4e-send.el
@@ -73,13 +73,7 @@ or if not available, :body-html converted to text)."
   prepending `mu4e-msg-citation-prefix' to each line. If there is
   no body in MSG, return nil."
   (let* ((from (plist-get msg :from))
-	  ;; first try plain-text, then html
-	  (body  (or (plist-get msg :body-txt)
-		   (with-temp-buffer
-		     (plist-get msg :body-html)
-		     (html2text)
-		     (buffer-string))))
-	  (body (and body (replace-regexp-in-string "[\r\240]" " " body))))
+	  (body (mu4e-body-text msg)))
     (when body
       (concat
 	(format "On %s, %s wrote:"
diff --git a/emacs/mu4e-view.el b/emacs/mu4e-view.el
index f61b687d..2f54ee56 100644
--- a/emacs/mu4e-view.el
+++ b/emacs/mu4e-view.el
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ marking if it still had that."
 		(t               (error "Unsupported field: %S" field)))))
 	    mu4e-view-fields "")
 	"\n"
-	(mu4e-view-body msg))
+	(mu4e-body-text msg))
 
       ;; initialize view-mode
       (mu4e-view-mode)
@@ -121,35 +121,6 @@ marking if it still had that."
       (unless update
 	(mu4e-view-mark-as-read-maybe)))))
 
-
-(defun mu4e-view-body (msg)
-  "Get the body for this message, which is either :body-txt,
-or if not available, :body-html converted to text. Sadly, html2text
-does not really work all the time..."
-  (let ((txt (plist-get msg :body-txt))
-	 (html (plist-get msg :body-html)))
-    ;; show the html body if there is no text, or if the text body is super
-    ;; short compared to the html one -- ie., it's probably just some lame 'this
-    ;; message requires html' message
-    (if (not html)
-      (if (not txt)
-	(propertize "No body found for this message" 'face 'mu4e-system-face)
-	txt)
-      ;; there's an html part
-      (if (or (not txt) (< (* 10 (length txt)) (length html)))
-	;; there's no text part, or it's very small
-	(with-temp-buffer
-	  (insert html)
-	  (if mu4e-html2text-command ;; if defined, use the external tool
-	    (shell-command-on-region (point-min) (point-max) mu4e-html2text-command
-	      nil t)
-	    ;; otherwise...
-	    (html2text))
-	  (buffer-string))
-	;; there's a normal sized text part
-	txt))))
-
-
 (defun mu4e-view-header (key val &optional dont-propertize-val)
   "Show header FIELD for MSG with KEY. ie. <KEY>: value-of-FIELD."
   (if val
diff --git a/emacs/mu4e.el b/emacs/mu4e.el
index b227d61e..18797b2d 100644
--- a/emacs/mu4e.el
+++ b/emacs/mu4e.el
@@ -513,6 +513,39 @@ Also see `mu/flags-to-string'.
     ((< size 1000) (format "%d" size))
     (t "<unknown>")))
 
+
+(defun mu4e-body-text (msg)
+  "Get the body in text form for this message, which is either :body-txt,
+or if not available, :body-html converted to text. By default, it
+uses the emacs built-in `html2text'. Alternatively, if
+`mu4e-html2text-command' is non-nil, it will use that."
+  (let ((txt (plist-get msg :body-txt))
+	 (html (plist-get msg :body-html)))
+    ;; show the html body if there is no text, or if the text body is super
+    ;; short compared to the html one -- ie., it's probably just some lame 'this
+    ;; message requires html' message
+    (if (not html)
+      (if (not txt) "" txt)
+      ;; there's an html part
+      (if (or (not txt) (< (* 10 (length txt)) (length html)))
+	;; there's no text part, or it's very small
+	(with-temp-buffer
+	  (insert html) ;; FIXME somehow, the replace-regexp does not work
+	  (replace-regexp "[\r ]" " " nil (point-min) (point-max))
+	  (if mu4e-html2text-command ;; if defined, use the external tool
+	    (shell-command-on-region (point-min) (point-max) mu4e-html2text-command
+	      nil t)
+	    ;; otherwise...
+	    (html2text))
+	  (buffer-string))
+	;; there's a normal sized text part
+	txt))))
+
+
+
+
+
+
 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
 
 (provide 'mu4e)