A physical theory for brittle failure is presented that aims to explain both the phenomenological and micro-structural observations. The objective of this model is to capture the important attributes inferred from micro-structural experiments so as to arrive at constitutive relations that describe macroscopic failure behaviour. Based on experimental results, the micromechanical failure character- isation is summarised first. The localised failure process of rock will experience two stages: the brittle breakage stage (bond rupture of rock bridge) and the sliding stage (frictional resistance of failure plane mobilisation). A physical model is developed by dividing the sample into elastic and localised shear zones. Furthermore, the deformation process of the localised shear zone is divided into bond loss and frictional resistance mobilisation in two stages. To combine the micro-characteristics with the macromechanical properties, the chain models in localised shear zone, and the homogenisation method are adopted. The model is validated against the experimental data of Yumlu and Ozbay's. Subsequently, the localised progressive failure characteristics of rock are analysed by changing the model's parameters. The intrinsic effects and influential factors such as geometrical effects (size effect, shape effect), the strain softening phenomenon and Class II stress-strain curves are revealed. Finally, in order to be used easily by engineers, the simplified description of rock failure process and its evolution of strength components are given based on the model.