diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index f45c7e5c..e5ac5802 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 - we now have a trunk and the version is 7.13.x, woo!
 - move manpages into a separate man/ dir ... speeds up builds a lot on windows
 - don't install malkovich
+- don't fail on unknown args for python (thanks Simon)
 
 1/8/07 started 7.12.5
 - im_embed() is more general ... x and y can be negative
diff --git a/python/vipsCC/VImage.i b/python/vipsCC/VImage.i
index 6066d0a8..100ae445 100644
--- a/python/vipsCC/VImage.i
+++ b/python/vipsCC/VImage.i
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
 /* SWIG interface file for vipsCC7
+ *
+ * 5/9/07
+ *      - use g_option_context_set_ignore_unknown_options() so we don't fail
+ *        on unrecognied -args (thanks Simon)
  */
 
 %module VImage
@@ -161,6 +165,7 @@ vips_fatal (const char *msg)
 	context = g_option_context_new ("- vips");
 	g_option_context_add_group (context, im_get_option_group());
 
+        g_option_context_set_ignore_unknown_options (context, TRUE);
 	if( !g_option_context_parse (context, 
 		&args->argc, &args->argv, &error)) {
 		g_option_context_free (context);