diff --git a/src/smeagol/routes/wiki.clj b/src/smeagol/routes/wiki.clj
index 51151bd..da1ff41 100644
--- a/src/smeagol/routes/wiki.clj
+++ b/src/smeagol/routes/wiki.clj
@@ -124,6 +124,7 @@
                            (merge (util/standard-params request)
                                   {:title page
                                    :page page
+                                   :side-bar (util/local-links (util/md->html "/content/_side-bar.md"))
                                    :content (util/local-links (util/md->html file-name))
                                    :editable true})))
           true (response/redirect (str "/edit?page=" page)))))
diff --git a/src/smeagol/util.clj b/src/smeagol/util.clj
index 8a45339..67f7203 100644
--- a/src/smeagol/util.clj
+++ b/src/smeagol/util.clj
@@ -37,17 +37,23 @@
   (md/md-to-html-string (io/slurp-resource filename)))
 
 
+;; Error to show if text to be rendered is nil.
+(def no-text-error "No text: does the file exist?")
+
+
 (defn local-links
   "Rewrite text in `html-src` surrounded by double square brackets as a local link into this wiki."
   [^String html-src]
-  (cs/replace html-src #"\[\[[^\[\]]*\]\]"
-              #(let [text (clojure.string/replace %1 #"[\[\]]" "")
-                     encoded (url-encode text)
-                     ;; I use '\_' to represent '_' in wiki markup, because
-                     ;; '_' is meaningful in Markdown. However, this needs to
-                     ;; be stripped out when interpreting local links.
-                     munged (cs/replace encoded #"%26%2395%3B" "_")]
-                 (format "<a href='wiki?page=%s'>%s</a>" munged text))))
+  (if html-src
+    (cs/replace html-src #"\[\[[^\[\]]*\]\]"
+                #(let [text (clojure.string/replace %1 #"[\[\]]" "")
+                       encoded (url-encode text)
+                       ;; I use '\_' to represent '_' in wiki markup, because
+                       ;; '_' is meaningful in Markdown. However, this needs to
+                       ;; be stripped out when interpreting local links.
+                       munged (cs/replace encoded #"%26%2395%3B" "_")]
+                   (format "<a href='wiki?page=%s'>%s</a>" munged text)))
+    no-text-error))
 
 
 (defn standard-params
diff --git a/test/smeagol/test/util.clj b/test/smeagol/test/util.clj
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d5e94f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/smeagol/test/util.clj
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+(ns smeagol.test.util
+  (:use clojure.test
+        ring.mock.request
+        smeagol.util))
+
+(deftest test-local-links
+  (testing "Rewriting of local links"
+    (is (= (local-links nil) no-text-error) "Should NOT fail with a no pointer exception!")
+    (is (= (local-links "") "") "Empty string should pass through unchanged.")
+    (is (= (local-links "[[froboz]]") "<a href='wiki?page=froboz'>froboz</a>") "Local link should be rewritten.")
+    (let [text (str "# This is a heading"
+                             "[This is a foreign link](http://to.somewhere)")]
+      (is (= (local-links text) text) "Foreign links should be unchanged"))))