diff --git a/integration_test.py b/integration_test.py
index 3ca2fd02..c000b27b 100644
--- a/integration_test.py
+++ b/integration_test.py
@@ -502,4 +502,17 @@ def test_define(record_property, tmpdir):  # #589
 
     assert exitcode == 0
     assert stderr == "test.cpp:1: syntax error: failed to expand 'TEST_P', Invalid ## usage when expanding 'TEST_P': Unexpected token ')'\n"
-    assert stdout == '\n'
\ No newline at end of file
+    assert stdout == '\n'
+
+def test_utf16_bom(tmpdir):
+    test_file = os.path.join(tmpdir, "test.cpp")
+    with open(test_file, 'wb') as f:
+        f.write(b'\xFF\xFE\x3B\x00')
+
+    args = [test_file]
+
+    exitcode, stdout, stderr = simplecpp(args, cwd=tmpdir)
+
+    assert exitcode == 0
+    assert stderr == ''
+    assert stdout == ';\n'
diff --git a/simplecpp.cpp b/simplecpp.cpp
index a7ced05a..3faa6894 100644
--- a/simplecpp.cpp
+++ b/simplecpp.cpp
@@ -275,8 +275,10 @@ class simplecpp::TokenList::Stream {
         return ch;
     }
 
-    unsigned char peekChar() {
-        auto ch = static_cast<unsigned char>(peek());
+    int peekChar() {
+        int ch = peek();
+        if (ch == EOF)
+            return ch;
 
         // For UTF-16 encoded files the BOM is 0xfeff/0xfffe. If the
         // character is non-ASCII character then replace it with 0xff
@@ -285,7 +287,7 @@ class simplecpp::TokenList::Stream {
             const auto ch2 = static_cast<unsigned char>(peek());
             unget();
             const int ch16 = makeUtf16Char(ch, ch2);
-            ch = static_cast<unsigned char>(((ch16 >= 0x80) ? 0xff : ch16));
+            ch = (ch16 >= 0x80) ? 0xff : ch16;
         }
 
         // Handling of newlines..
@@ -598,7 +600,7 @@ std::string simplecpp::TokenList::stringify(bool linenrs) const
     return ret.str();
 }
 
-static bool isNameChar(unsigned char ch)
+static bool isNameChar(int ch)
 {
     return std::isalnum(ch) || ch == '_' || ch == '$';
 }