diff --git a/memcache.py b/memcache.py
index 05b6657..85273a5 100644
--- a/memcache.py
+++ b/memcache.py
@@ -106,8 +106,10 @@ class _ConnectionDeadError(Exception):
 _SOCKET_TIMEOUT = 3  # number of seconds before sockets timeout.
 
 
-class Client(threading.local):
-    """Object representing a pool of memcache servers.
+class BasicClient(object):
+    """Object representing a pool of memcache servers. This is not thread-safe,
+    and should either be wrapped in a thread-local variable or other
+    synchronizing mechanism.
 
     See L{memcache} for an overview.
 
@@ -207,7 +209,7 @@ def __init__(self, servers, debug=0, pickleProtocol=0,
         to ensure it is the correct length and composed of the right
         characters.
         """
-        super(Client, self).__init__()
+        super(BasicClient, self).__init__()
         self.debug = debug
         self.dead_retry = dead_retry
         self.socket_timeout = socket_timeout
@@ -1500,6 +1502,14 @@ def __str__(self):
             return "unix:%s%s" % (self.address, d)
 
 
+class Client(threading.local, BasicClient):
+    """
+    Thread-safe memcache client. See L{BasicClient} for more information on how
+    to use this class.
+    """
+    pass
+
+
 def _doctest():
     import doctest
     import memcache