diff --git a/ebook_converter/utils/entities.py b/ebook_converter/utils/entities.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..517d463
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ebook_converter/utils/entities.py
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+"""
+Misc util functions for converting HTML/XML entites to unicode.
+"""
+import html
+import functools
+import re
+
+from ebook_converter.ebooks.html_entities import html5_entities
+
+
+ENT_PAT = re.compile(r'&(\S+?);')
+
+
+def entity_to_unicode(match, exceptions=[], encoding='cp1252',
+                      result_exceptions={}):
+    """
+    :param match: A match object such that '&'+match.group(1)';' is the entity.
+
+    :param exceptions: A list of entities to not convert (Each entry is the
+                       name of the entity, for e.g. 'apos' or '#1234'
+
+    :param encoding: The encoding to use to decode numeric entities between
+                     128 and 256. If None, the Unicode UCS encoding is used.
+                     A common encoding is cp1252.
+
+    :param result_exceptions: A mapping of characters to entities. If the
+                              result is in result_exceptions,
+                              result_exception[result] is returned instead.
+                              Convenient way to specify exception for things
+                              like < or > that can be specified by various
+                              actual entities.
+    """
+
+    def my_unichr(num):
+        try:
+            return chr(num)
+        except (ValueError, OverflowError):
+            return '?'
+
+    def check(ch):
+        return result_exceptions.get(ch, ch)
+
+    ent = match.group(1)
+    if ent in exceptions:
+        return '&'+ent+';'
+    # squot is generated by some broken CMS software
+    if ent in {'apos', 'squot'}:
+        return check("'")
+    if ent == 'hellips':
+        ent = 'hellip'
+    if ent.startswith('#'):
+        try:
+            if ent[1] in ('x', 'X'):
+                num = int(ent[2:], 16)
+            else:
+                num = int(ent[1:])
+        except Exception:
+            return '&'+ent+';'
+        if encoding is None or num > 255:
+            return check(my_unichr(num))
+        try:
+            return check(bytes(bytearray((num,))).decode(encoding))
+        except UnicodeDecodeError:
+            return check(my_unichr(num))
+    try:
+        return check(html5_entities[ent])
+    except KeyError:
+        pass
+    try:
+        return check(my_unichr(html.entities.name2codepoint[ent]))
+    except KeyError:
+        return '&'+ent+';'
+
+
+xml_entity_to_unicode = functools.partial(entity_to_unicode,
+                                          result_exceptions={'"': '&quot;',
+                                                             "'": '&apos;',
+                                                             '<': '&lt;',
+                                                             '>': '&gt;',
+                                                             '&': '&amp;'})
+
+
+def replace_entities(raw, encoding='cp1252'):
+    return ENT_PAT.sub(functools.partial(entity_to_unicode, encoding=encoding),
+                       raw)
+
+
+def xml_replace_entities(raw, encoding='cp1252'):
+    return ENT_PAT.sub(functools.partial(xml_entity_to_unicode,
+                                         encoding=encoding), raw)
+
+
+def prepare_string_for_xml(raw, attribute=False):
+    raw = ENT_PAT.sub(entity_to_unicode, raw)
+    raw = raw.replace('&', '&amp;').replace('<', '&lt;').replace('>', '&gt;')
+    if attribute:
+        raw = raw.replace('"', '&quot;').replace("'", '&apos;')
+    return raw