Arthur Conan Doyle began 'The Stark Munro Letters' in 1894 while he was in Switzerland. His idea 'was to draw that critical period which comes to so many clever inquiring men when they first see the fallacies of the sect in which they have been raised.. And then as a second aim I thought how seldom the struggle of a young man to find room for himself in the world has been done in fiction.' The semi-autobiographical account of the author's relationship with Dr Budd is of most interest. Some of the incidents recounted were imaginary but overall his relationship with Dr James Cullingworth who appears as Dr Budd in the 'Letters' is of immense biographical interest. In later editions, Conan Doyle removed the final note regarding the death of Stark Munro and his wife in a railway accident.