diff --git a/Lib/plat-riscos/riscospath.py b/Lib/plat-riscos/riscospath.py
index fb0e477..30c0c9f 100644
--- a/Lib/plat-riscos/riscospath.py
+++ b/Lib/plat-riscos/riscospath.py
@@ -311,10 +311,8 @@
     return b.tostring(0, swi.swi('OS_GSTrans', 'sbi;..i', p, b, l))
 
 
-# Return an absolute path.
-
-def abspath(p):
-    return normpath(join(os.getcwd(), p))
+# Return an absolute path. RISC OS' osfscontrol_canonicalise_path does this among others
+abspath = os.expand
 
 
 # realpath is a no-op on systems without islink support