diff --git a/NEWS.org b/NEWS.org
index 36a809e7..ea566aed 100644
--- a/NEWS.org
+++ b/NEWS.org
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 *** mu
 
     - Where available (and with suitable glib), log to the systemd journal
-      instead of a =~/.cache/mu.log=
+      instead of a ~~/.cache/mu.log~
 
     - Follow symlinks in maildirs, and support moving messsages between across
       multiple filesystems (but note that that is quite a bit slower than the
@@ -33,6 +33,10 @@
     - Honor ~truncate-string-ellipsis~ so you can now use 'fancy' ellipses for
       truncated strings with ~(setq truncate-string-ellipsis "…")~
 
+    - Add a variable ~mu4e-mu-debug~ which, when set to non-~nil~ makes the ~mu~
+      server log more verbosely (to ~mu.log~ or the journal)
+
+
 
 * 1.4 (released, as of April 18 2020)
 
diff --git a/mu4e/mu4e-proc.el b/mu4e/mu4e-proc.el
index 87fc9f8e..e1369887 100644
--- a/mu4e/mu4e-proc.el
+++ b/mu4e/mu4e-proc.el
@@ -249,10 +249,11 @@ Start the process if needed."
   (unless (and mu4e-mu-binary (file-executable-p mu4e-mu-binary))
     (mu4e-error
      (format
-      "`mu4e-mu-binary' (%S) not found; please set to the path to the mu executable"
+      "`mu4e-mu-binary' (%S) not found; please set to the mu executable path"
       mu4e-mu-binary)))
   (let* ((process-connection-type nil) ;; use a pipe
          (args (when mu4e-mu-home `(,(format"--muhome=%s" mu4e-mu-home))))
+         (args (if mu4e-mu-debug (cons "--debug" args) args))
          (args (cons "server" args)))
     (setq mu4e~proc-buf "")
     (setq mu4e~proc-process (apply 'start-process
diff --git a/mu4e/mu4e-vars.el b/mu4e/mu4e-vars.el
index ada363ee..a863d0b9 100644
--- a/mu4e/mu4e-vars.el
+++ b/mu4e/mu4e-vars.el
@@ -51,6 +51,12 @@ path."
   :group 'mu4e
   :safe 'stringp)
 
+(defcustom mu4e-mu-debug nil
+  "Whether to run the mu binary in debug-mode.
+Setting this to t increases the amount of information in the log."
+  :type 'boolean
+  :group 'mu4e)
+
 (make-obsolete-variable 'mu4e-maildir
                         "determined by server; see `mu4e-root-maildir'." "1.3.8")