diff --git a/memcache.py b/memcache.py
index 05b6657..05a0df4 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
@@ -1440,7 +1442,8 @@ def readline(self, raise_exception=False):
         if self.socket:
             recv = self.socket.recv
         else:
-            recv = lambda bufsize: b''
+            def recv(bufsize):
+                return b''
 
         while True:
             index = buf.find(b'\r\n')
@@ -1500,6 +1503,13 @@ 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
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 93cbe4d..990551f 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
     maintainer="Sean Reifschneider",
     maintainer_email="jafo@tummy.com",
     url="https://github.com/linsomniac/python-memcached",
-    download_url="https://github.com/linsomniac/python-memcached/releases/download/{0}/python-memcached-{0}.tar.gz".format(version),
+    download_url="https://github.com/linsomniac/python-memcached/releases/download/{0}/python-memcached-{0}.tar.gz".format(version),  # noqa
     py_modules=["memcache"],
     install_requires=open('requirements.txt').read().split(),
     classifiers=[