He assumes his magician name, John Mandrake, to protect him from rivals who would wish to harm him. The first book in the trilogy, published 2003, introduces Nathaniel as the gifted 12-year-old apprentice of a middle-aged mid-level magician, Arthur Underwood. The books incorporate references to various world mythologies and folklore, such as the Arabian Nights and Homer. In particular these changes are reflected in the contrast between modern aspects (such as electricity, laptops, and cars) and older ones (colonial-era weapons, including muskets). The novels are set in an alternate history, with the effects of magic, magicians, and demons having resulted in many changes, but with many countries, cities, events, and people from actual history. The UK is a magical oligarchy where a ruling elite of magicians hold almost all the political, economic and cultural power. The most recent nation to do this is the British empire (of which London is the capital) that has dominated Europe since the mid-19th century and continues to do so at the time of the story. Throughout history, various individuals and empires have harnessed these magical forces to obtain great power in the world. The series is set in London during the late 1900s or possibly the early 2000s in a parallel universe where trained people can summon demons to do their bidding.

The story follows the career of a teenage magician Nathaniel (aka John Mandrake) and a five-thousand-year-old djinni Bartimaeus, whom he has summoned and nominally controls, through the alternative history of the peak of London's domination as a magical oligarchy.

It was written by British writer Jonathan Stroud and consists of a trilogy published from 2003 to 2005 and a prequel novel published in 2010. The Bartimaeus Sequence is a series of young adult novels of alternate history, fantasy and magic.

The bartimaeus series