diff --git a/http-dispatch.cabal b/http-dispatch.cabal
--- a/http-dispatch.cabal
+++ b/http-dispatch.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name:                http-dispatch
-version:             0.1.0.0
+version:             0.2.0.0
 synopsis:            High level HTTP client for Haskell
 description:         Please see README.md
 homepage:            http://github.com/owainlewis/http-dispatch#readme
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 author:              Owain Lewis
 maintainer:          owain@owainlewis.com
 copyright:           2016 Owain Lewis
-category:            Web
+category:            Network
 build-type:          Simple
 cabal-version:       >=1.10
 
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
   exposed-modules:     Network.HTTP.Dispatch.Core
                      , Network.HTTP.Dispatch.Headers
                      , Network.HTTP.Dispatch.Types
+                     , Network.HTTP.Dispatch.Request
   build-depends:       base >= 4.7 && < 5
                      , http-client
                      , http-client-tls
diff --git a/src/Network/HTTP/Dispatch/Request.hs b/src/Network/HTTP/Dispatch/Request.hs
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Network/HTTP/Dispatch/Request.hs
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+{-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
+module Network.HTTP.Dispatch.Request
+  ( toRequest
+  , runRequest
+  ) where
+
+import qualified Control.Exception           as E
+import qualified Data.ByteString.Char8       as C
+import qualified Data.ByteString.Lazy        as LBS
+import qualified Data.CaseInsensitive        as CI
+import           Data.List                   (isPrefixOf)
+import           Data.String                 (fromString)
+import           Network.HTTP.Client         as Client
+import           Network.HTTP.Client.TLS
+import           Network.HTTP.Dispatch.Types (HTTPRequest (..),
+                                              HTTPRequestMethod (..),
+                                              HTTPResponse (..), Header (..))
+import           Network.HTTP.Types          (RequestHeaders, Status (..))
+
+-- Transforms a dispatch request into a low level http-client request
+--
+toRequest :: HTTPRequest -> IO Client.Request
+toRequest (HTTPRequest method url headers body) = do
+    initReq <- parseUrl url
+    let hdrs = map (\(k, v) -> (fromString k, fromString v)) headers
+        req = initReq
+              { method = C.pack . show $ method
+              , requestHeaders = hdrs
+                -- Make sure no exceptions are thrown so that we can handle non 200 codes
+              , checkStatus = \_ _ _ -> Nothing
+              }
+    case body of
+      Just lbs -> return $ req { requestBody = RequestBodyLBS lbs }
+      Nothing -> return $ req
+
+getManagerForUrl :: String -> IO Manager
+getManagerForUrl url =
+    if ("https" `isPrefixOf` url) then newManager tlsManagerSettings
+                                  else newManager defaultManagerSettings
+
+toResponse :: Client.Response LBS.ByteString -> HTTPResponse
+toResponse resp =
+    let rStatus = statusCode . responseStatus $ resp
+        rHdrs = responseHeaders resp
+        rBody = responseBody resp
+    in
+    HTTPResponse rStatus (map (\(k,v) ->
+                                let hk = C.unpack . CI.original $ k
+                                    hv = C.unpack v in
+                                (hk, hv)) rHdrs) rBody
+
+class Runnable a where
+  -- Run a HTTP request and return the response
+    runRequest :: a -> IO HTTPResponse
+    -- Run a HTTP request with custom settings (proxy, https etc) and return the response
+    runRequestWithSettings :: a -> ManagerSettings -> IO HTTPResponse
+
+handleMyException :: HttpException -> IO HTTPResponse
+handleMyException (StatusCodeException s hdrs cj) = return $ HTTPResponse (statusCode s) [] ""
+
+instance Runnable HTTPRequest where
+    runRequest httpRequest = do
+        manager <- getManagerForUrl (reqUrl httpRequest)
+        request <- toRequest httpRequest
+        httpLbs request manager >>= return . toResponse
+
+    runRequestWithSettings httpRequest settings = do
+        manager <- newManager settings
+        request <- toRequest httpRequest
+        httpLbs request manager >>= return . toResponse