diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 1998772f..b94048ae 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 ncmpcpp-0.6.5 (????-??-??)
 
 * Description of mouse wheel usage on volume is now correct.
+* Configure script now fails if either readline or pthread specific headers are not present.
 
 ncmpcpp-0.6.4 (2015-05-02)
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 00fce39b..7915bed8 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -211,6 +211,7 @@ AC_CHECK_HEADERS([readline/readline.h readline/history.h],
 	AC_CHECK_LIB(readline, rl_initialize, LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS -lreadline",
 		AC_MSG_ERROR([readline headers found but there is no readline library to make use of])
 	),
+	AC_MSG_ERROR([no readline/readline.h header file found])
 )
 
 
@@ -221,6 +222,7 @@ AC_CHECK_HEADERS([pthread.h],
 	AC_CHECK_LIB(pthread, pthread_create, LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS -lpthread",
 		AC_MSG_ERROR([pthread.h found but there is no pthread library to make use of])
 	),
+	AC_MSG_ERROR([no pthread.h header header file found])
 )
 
 dnl ========================