diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index de5bd2be..22af5679 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 - integrate doxygen in build system to generate C++ API docs
 - improve C++ API doc comments
 - add VipsInterpolate and guint64 support to C++ API 
+- add VImage::new_from_memory_steal [Zeranoe]
 
 6/9/20 started 8.10.2
 - update magicksave/load profile handling [kelilevi]
diff --git a/cplusplus/VImage.cpp b/cplusplus/VImage.cpp
index 3242c016..49b006a4 100644
--- a/cplusplus/VImage.cpp
+++ b/cplusplus/VImage.cpp
@@ -641,6 +641,22 @@ VImage::new_from_source( VSource source, const char *option_string,
 	return( out );
 }
 
+VImage 
+VImage::new_from_memory_steal( void *data, size_t size,
+	int width, int height, int bands, VipsBandFormat format )
+{
+	VipsImage *image;
+
+	if( !(image = vips_image_new_from_memory( data, size, 
+		width, height, bands, format )) )
+		throw( VError() );
+
+	g_signal_connect( image, "postclose",
+		G_CALLBACK( vips_image_free_buffer ), data);
+
+	return( VImage( image ) ); 
+}
+
 VImage
 VImage::new_matrix( int width, int height )
 {
diff --git a/cplusplus/include/vips/VImage8.h b/cplusplus/include/vips/VImage8.h
index ee96ac60..a62ebd8d 100644
--- a/cplusplus/include/vips/VImage8.h
+++ b/cplusplus/include/vips/VImage8.h
@@ -862,11 +862,23 @@ public:
 		return( VImage( image ) ); 
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Create a new VImage object from an area of memory containing a
+	 * C-style array.
+	 *
+	 * The VImage steals ownership of @data and will free() it when it
+	 * goes out of scope.
+	 */
+	static VImage 
+	new_from_memory_steal( void *data, size_t size,
+		int width, int height, int bands, VipsBandFormat format );
+
 	/**
 	 * Create a matrix image of a specified size. All elements will be
 	 * zero.
 	 */
-	static VImage new_matrix( int width, int height );
+	static VImage
+	new_matrix( int width, int height );
 
 	/**
 	 * Create a matrix image of a specified size, initialized from the
@@ -917,22 +929,6 @@ public:
 		return( new_from_image( to_vectorv( 1, pixel ) ) ); 
 	}
 
-	static VImage 
-	new_from_memory_steal( void *data, size_t size,
-		int width, int height, int bands, VipsBandFormat format )
-	{
-		VipsImage *image;
-
-		if( !(image = vips_image_new_from_memory( data, size, 
-			width, height, bands, format )) )
-			throw( VError() );
-
-		g_signal_connect( image, "postclose",
-			G_CALLBACK(vips_image_free_buffer), data);
-
-		return( VImage( image ) ); 
-	}
-
 	/**
 	 * Make a new image by rendering self to a large memory area, 
 	 * wrapping a VImage around it, and copying all metadata over from 
diff --git a/libvips/iofuncs/image.c b/libvips/iofuncs/image.c
index 893768a7..4dec38bb 100644
--- a/libvips/iofuncs/image.c
+++ b/libvips/iofuncs/image.c
@@ -3878,7 +3878,7 @@ vips_band_format_iscomplex( VipsBandFormat format )
  * @buffer: the orignal buffer that was stolen
  *
  * Free the externally allocated buffer found in the input image. This function
- * is intened to be used with g_signal_connect.
+ * is intended to be used with g_signal_connect.
  */
 void
 vips_image_free_buffer( VipsImage *image, void *buffer )