Young Branwell Bronte, who once ruled an imaginary world, is now a man trying to cope with the real world.

Having failed as a poet and painter, as doomed in love as he is in literature, he slips down the road of drink, drugs and despair.

His father Patrick and sister Charlotte fight a last-ditch stand for his salvation, but it is Branwell’s sinister friend, gravedigger John Brown, who threatens to have the last word in this “ultimately terrifying” take on the Bronte family.

The Bronte Boy by Michael Yates is presented by Act One Productions and will be performed in Haworth this summer. Director Marian Mantovani says it provides a fascinating insight into the lives of the Bronte family, from the perspective of Branwell.

* The Bronte Boy will be staged at Haworth Baptist Centre on Friday, June 7, and The Carriage-works Theatre, Leeds, on June 28 and 29. Ring (0113) 2243801.