diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index dbabdd3de..92dc19f3f 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -93,6 +93,11 @@ more information.
 
 ** Update predefined character sets to Unicode 6.2.
 
+** GMP 4.2 or later required
+
+Guile used to require GMP at least version 4.1 (released in May 2002),
+and now requires at least version 4.2 (released in March 2006).
+
 * Manual updates
 
 ** Better SXML documentation.
diff --git a/README b/README
index 31fdb80ca..480ef66c1 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ Required External Packages ================================================
 
 Guile requires the following external packages:
 
-  - GNU MP, at least version 4.1
+  - GNU MP, at least version 4.2
 
     GNU MP is used for bignum arithmetic.  It is available from
     http://gmplib.org/ .