If you are a national treasure it seems likely there are quite a lot of demands on your time.

But the environmentalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, who has been knighted twice for his championing of the natural world, still found the time to reply with great kindness and in a handwritten note to a youngster from Radstock.

Eight year old Ivy described herself as a big animal lover and said she was studying emperor penguins at school, helpfully also drawing one on her letter in case he needed reminding what they look like. Clearly a keen environmentalist, young Ivy wrote to ask ninety six year old Sir David, to ask which was HIS favourite animal from the Antarctic.

Her delighted grandmother said : " She wrote to David Attenborough last Saturday and he replied by Thursday, not a pre printed generic reply but a proper hand written response. She is so chuffed…"

David Attenborough was first knighted by the Queen in 1985, and then appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael And St George, last summer, for his work on highlighting the natural world and the wonders it contains, through his series on television.

Ivy who is keen on all kinds of wildlife, got her reply too and in just a few days.

The broadcaster, biologist and natural historian, who has gained millions of fans with his programme Planet Earth and the hugely popular sequels. wrote to tell the youngster he did not have a favourite Antarctic animal. But in his own handwriting, on a sheaf of personal notepaper, he wrote that he was very pleased she was a fan.