diff --git a/history.md b/history.md
index 89ec135..994361a 100644
--- a/history.md
+++ b/history.md
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 - multipart parameters names should not be escaped
 - remove the cookie escaping introduced by migrating to CGI cookie parsing in 1.5.1
 - add a streamed payload type (patch provided by Caleb Land)
+- Exception#http_body works even when no response
 
 # 1.5.1
 
diff --git a/lib/restclient/exceptions.rb b/lib/restclient/exceptions.rb
index 8452021..cbc901c 100644
--- a/lib/restclient/exceptions.rb
+++ b/lib/restclient/exceptions.rb
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ module RestClient
     end
 
     def http_body
-      @response.body
+      @response.body if @response
     end
 
     def inspect