Seventies punk legend Patti Smith has spoken of her passion for the Bronte sisters who she said experienced much beauty and tragedy during their time in Haworth.

Patti, who played a gig for the Bronte Society on Friday in the Bronte Schoolroom, toured the Parsonage Museum, where the family used to live, for Radio 4’s Today show.

During the programme, broadcast on Saturday, she said: “Most of the Brontes passed away here, they did their work here, wrote master pieces here and experienced so much beauty and tragedy here, it’s quite moving.” Patti, from New York, said the literary Brontes were powerful story-tellers whose work she had been introduced to by her sister, Linda. She said her and her sister were both big fans of the Brontes’ work and would read and discuss the books in great detail and phone each other daily to talk about them after Patti moved away when she married.

Patti was in Haworth with her sister on a trip she described as a “pilgrimage”.

She said: “I promised my sister that when she turned 65 I would bring her here and so I planned this little trip and we’re going to end it in Scarborough on Charlotte’s birthday, which is on April 21, and go to visit Anne’s grave.”

She said she was overjoyed by the visit.