Small itch scratched.

import csv

from xlrd import open_workbook

def excel_to_csv(excel_file, include=None):
    """
    Convert the data in the excel_file to CSV. If
    include is specified, only those named columns
    will be included in the CSV.
    """

    # open the Excel file
    wb = open_workbook(excel_file)

    # read each sheet in the file
    for s in wb.sheets():
        # create a CVS writer per sheet
        csv_writer = csv.writer(open("%s.csv" % (s.name), 'wb'))

        # what columns are included in the CSV?
        include_cols = []
        for col in range(s.ncols):
            heading = s.cell(0, col).value
            if include:
                if heading in include:
                    include_cols.append(col)
            else:
                include_cols.append(col)

        # for each row, write a line of CSV.
        for row in range(s.nrows):
            rd = []
            for col in include_cols:
                value = s.cell(row, col).value
                rd.append(value)
            csv_writer.writerow(rd)

Aided and abetted by xlrd.