diff --git a/HISTORY.md b/HISTORY.md
index aaccbb0..58de623 100644
--- a/HISTORY.md
+++ b/HISTORY.md
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 ### Bugfixes
 
 - Fixed a crash when exporting an empty string with the ReST format (#368)
+- Error cells from imported .xls files contain now the error string (#202)
 
 ## 0.14.0 (2019-10-19)
 
diff --git a/src/tablib/formats/_xls.py b/src/tablib/formats/_xls.py
index 3fc94af..0533476 100644
--- a/src/tablib/formats/_xls.py
+++ b/src/tablib/formats/_xls.py
@@ -76,7 +76,10 @@ def import_set(dset, in_stream, headers=True):
         if (i == 0) and (headers):
             dset.headers = sheet.row_values(0)
         else:
-            dset.append(sheet.row_values(i))
+            dset.append([
+                val if typ != xlrd.XL_CELL_ERROR else xlrd.error_text_from_code[val]
+                for val, typ in zip(sheet.row_values(i), sheet.row_types(i))
+            ])
 
 
 def import_book(dbook, in_stream, headers=True):
diff --git a/tests/files/errors.xls b/tests/files/errors.xls
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0869337
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/files/errors.xls differ
diff --git a/tests/test_tablib.py b/tests/test_tablib.py
index 00b8214..695d13d 100755
--- a/tests/test_tablib.py
+++ b/tests/test_tablib.py
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ import doctest
 import json
 import pickle
 import unittest
+from collections import OrderedDict
+from pathlib import Path
 from uuid import uuid4
 
 import tablib
@@ -887,17 +889,34 @@ class TSVTests(BaseTestCase):
         self.assertEqual(tsv, self.founders.tsv)
 
 
+class XLSTests(BaseTestCase):
+    def test_xls_format_detect(self):
+        """Test the XLS format detection."""
+        in_stream = self.founders.xls
+        self.assertEqual(detect_format(in_stream), 'xls')
+
+    def test_xls_import_with_errors(self):
+        """Errors from imported files are kept as errors."""
+        xls_source = Path(__file__).parent / 'files' / 'errors.xls'
+        with xls_source.open('rb') as fh:
+            data = tablib.Dataset().load(fh.read())
+        self.assertEqual(
+            data.dict[0],
+            OrderedDict([
+                ('div by 0', '#DIV/0!'),
+                ('name unknown', '#NAME?'),
+                ('not available (formula)', '#N/A'),
+                ('not available (static)', '#N/A')
+            ])
+        )
+
+
 class XLSXTests(BaseTestCase):
     def test_xlsx_format_detect(self):
         """Test the XLSX format detection."""
         in_stream = self.founders.xlsx
         self.assertEqual(detect_format(in_stream), 'xlsx')
 
-    def test_xls_format_detect(self):
-        """Test the XLS format detection."""
-        in_stream = self.founders.xls
-        self.assertEqual(detect_format(in_stream), 'xls')
-
     def test_xlsx_import_set(self):
         date_time = datetime.datetime(2019, 10, 4, 12, 30, 8)
         data.append(('string', '004', 42, 21.55, date_time))