diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index cb3f725a..e7eff003 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 14/6/21 started 8.12
 - all tools support `--version`
+- add vips_svgload_string() convenience function
 
 14/8/20 started 8.11.1
 - add more example code to C docs
diff --git a/libvips/foreign/svgload.c b/libvips/foreign/svgload.c
index 8b9106f9..0974f79d 100644
--- a/libvips/foreign/svgload.c
+++ b/libvips/foreign/svgload.c
@@ -805,6 +805,45 @@ vips_svgload_buffer( void *buf, size_t len, VipsImage **out, ... )
 	return( result );
 }
 
+/**
+ * vips_svgload_string:
+ * @str: string to load
+ * @out: (out): image to write
+ * @...: %NULL-terminated list of optional named arguments
+ *
+ * Optional arguments:
+ *
+ * * @dpi: %gdouble, render at this DPI
+ * * @scale: %gdouble, scale render by this factor
+ * * @unlimited: %gboolean, allow SVGs of any size
+ *
+ * Exactly as vips_svgload(), but read from a string. This function takes a
+ * copy of the string.
+ *
+ * See also: vips_svgload().
+ *
+ * Returns: 0 on success, -1 on error.
+ */
+int
+vips_svgload_string( const char *str, VipsImage **out, ... )
+{
+	va_list ap;
+	VipsBlob *blob;
+	int result;
+
+	/* Copy the string.
+	 */
+	blob = vips_blob_copy( (const void *) str, strlen( str ) );
+
+	va_start( ap, out );
+	result = vips_call_split( "svgload_buffer", ap, blob, out );
+	va_end( ap );
+
+	vips_area_unref( VIPS_AREA( blob ) );
+
+	return( result );
+}
+
 /**
  * vips_svgload_source:
  * @source: source to load from
diff --git a/libvips/include/vips/foreign.h b/libvips/include/vips/foreign.h
index 0d19e38b..8b45bd31 100644
--- a/libvips/include/vips/foreign.h
+++ b/libvips/include/vips/foreign.h
@@ -648,6 +648,8 @@ int vips_svgload( const char *filename, VipsImage **out, ... )
 	__attribute__((sentinel));
 int vips_svgload_buffer( void *buf, size_t len, VipsImage **out, ... )
 	__attribute__((sentinel));
+int vips_svgload_string( const char *str, VipsImage **out, ... )
+	__attribute__((sentinel));
 int vips_svgload_source( VipsSource *source, VipsImage **out, ... )
 	__attribute__((sentinel));