diff --git a/src/string.sip b/src/string.sip
index 097c3abd..746c696e 100644
--- a/src/string.sip
+++ b/src/string.sip
@@ -10,21 +10,76 @@
 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 
 
-// We don't want the Python user to ever need to deal with wxString, so it
-// will be mapped to and from Python UNicode objects using the code snippets
-// below.
+// We don't want the Python user to ever need to deal directly with wxString
+// at all, so it will be mapped to and from Python Unicode objects using the
+// code snippets below.
+
+// NOTE: Currently we assume that string objects are encoding in utf-8.  Decide if we
+// want to do this or to use the default encoding for the locale like the old
+// wxPython does.
 
 %MappedType wxString
 {
     // Code to test a PyObject for compatibility and to convert from a 
     // PyObject to a wxString
     %ConvertToTypeCode
-        // TODO
+        // just check the type?
+        if (!sipIsErr) {
+            if (PyString_Check(sipPy) || PyUnicode_Check(sipPy))
+                return 1;
+            return 0;
+        }
+        // Or do the conversion
+#if wxUSE_UNICODE_WCHAR
+        // wxString will contain wide chars (wchar_t)
+        PyObject* uni = sipPy;
+        if (PyString_Check(sipPy)) {
+            // if it's a string object convert it to unicode first
+            uni = PyUnicode_FromEncodedObject(sipPy,
+                                              "utf-8", /*wxPyDefaultEncoding*/
+                                              "strict");
+            if (PyErr_Occurred()) return 0;
+        }            
+        *sipCppPtr = new wxString();
+        size_t len = PyUnicode_GET_SIZE(uni);
+        if (len) {
+            PyUnicode_AsWideChar((PyUnicodeObject*)uni,
+                                 wxStringBuffer(**sipCppPtr, len), len);
+        }
+        if (PyString_Check(sipPy))
+            Py_DECREF(uni);  // release the temporary Unicode object we created
+        return sipGetState(sipTransferObj);
+#else
+        // wxString will contain a utf-8 encoded byte string.  If source is
+        // already a string then use it as-is, (assuming utf-8) otherwise
+        // the Unicode object to utf-8 and use the converted value.
+        char* tmpPtr; Py_ssize_t tmpSize;
+        PyObject* str = NULL;
+        //PyObject* uni = NULL;
+        if (PyString_Check(sipPy) /*&& wxPyDefaultEncodingIsUTF8 */) {
+            PyString_AsStringAndSize(sipPy, &tmpPtr, &tmpSize);
+        }
+        //else if (PyString_Check(sipPy)) {
+        //    uni = PyUnicode_FromEncodedObject(sipPy, wxPyDefaultEncoding, "strict");
+        //    if (PyErr_Occurred()) return NULL;
+        //    str = PyUnicode_AsUTF8String(uni);
+        //    PyString_AsStringAndSize(sipPy, &tmpPtr, &tmpSize);
+        //}
+        else {
+            str = PyUnicode_AsUTF8String(sipPy);
+            PyString_AsStringAndSize(str, &tmpPtr, &tmpSize);
+        }
+        *sipCppPtr = new wxString(tmpPtr, tmpSize);
+        Py_XDECREF(str);
+        //Py_XDECREF(uni);    
+        return sipGetState(sipTransferObj);        
+#endif
     %End
-    
+
+         
     // Code to convert a wxString to a PyObject
     %ConvertFromTypeCode
-        // TODO
+         return sipBuildResult(NULL, "G", sipCpp->c_str(), sipCpp->length());
     %End
     
 };