A fictional imagining of the life of poet William Cowper - best known as the precursor to Romantics like Wordsworth and Burns.

The Winner of Sorrow brings to life the mind and times of an 18th century poet at the end of his life and descending into mental illness. Lynch, once named by Samuel Beckett as an exceptional talent, manages to avoid being sentimental or precious about the subject at hand, instead achieving an austere yet blackly comic feat of characterisation and attention to detail.