diff --git a/tests/test_parser.py b/tests/test_parser.py
index bc609e1..453b7ab 100644
--- a/tests/test_parser.py
+++ b/tests/test_parser.py
@@ -180,6 +180,16 @@ def test_patchset_from_bytes_string(self):
 
         self.assertEqual(ps1, ps2)
 
+    def test_patchset_string_input(self):
+            with codecs.open(self.sample_file, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as diff_file:
+                diff_data = diff_file.read()
+                ps1 = PatchSet(diff_data)
+
+            with codecs.open(self.sample_file, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as diff_file:
+                ps2 = PatchSet(diff_file)
+
+            self.assertEqual(ps1, ps2)
+
     def test_parse_malformed_diff(self):
         """Parse malformed file."""
         with open(self.sample_bad_file) as diff_file:
diff --git a/unidiff/patch.py b/unidiff/patch.py
index 1aa09ad..70f0284 100644
--- a/unidiff/patch.py
+++ b/unidiff/patch.py
@@ -62,7 +62,8 @@ def implements_to_string(cls):
     make_str = str
     implements_to_string = lambda x: x
     unicode = str
-
+    basestring = str
+    
 
 @implements_to_string
 class Line(object):
@@ -294,6 +295,11 @@ class PatchSet(list):
 
     def __init__(self, f, encoding=None):
         super(PatchSet, self).__init__()
+        
+        # convert string inputs to StringIO objects
+        if isinstance(f, basestring):
+            f = self._convert_string(f, encoding)
+
         # make sure we pass an iterator object to parse
         data = iter(f)
         # if encoding is None, assume we are reading unicode data
@@ -355,13 +361,17 @@ def from_filename(cls, filename, encoding=DEFAULT_ENCODING, errors=None):
             instance = cls(f)
         return instance
 
-    @classmethod
-    def from_string(cls, data, encoding=None, errors='strict'):
+    @staticmethod
+    def _convert_string(data, encoding=None, errors='strict'):
         """Return a PatchSet instance given a diff string."""
         if encoding is not None:
             # if encoding is given, assume bytes and decode
             data = unicode(data, encoding=encoding, errors=errors)
-        return cls(StringIO(data))
+        return StringIO(data)
+
+    @classmethod
+    def from_string(cls, data, encoding=None, errors='strict'):
+        return cls(cls._convert_string(data, encoding, errors))
 
     @property
     def added_files(self):