Alistair Cooke has been awarded a peerage, with which he will become Lord Lexden, of Lexden in the county of Essex and Strangford in the County of Down. The title is an acknowledgement of Lord Lexden’s roots in Lexden (where he grew up) and to his work in Northern Ireland. Alistair Lexden was raised in Colchester where his father Basil Cooke was a GP in the town for nearly 40 years.