*Not really spoilers, you'd get this much off the back cover of the books anyway*
I read the third part of the trilogy (Ptolemy's Gate) a couple of weeks ago and the first two (The Amulet of Samarkand and The Golem's Eye) sometime last year. They're set in an alternate England ruled by magicians who believe themselves to be superior to the commoners. Nathaniel's a magician who summons up a djinni called Bartimaeus and the two become involved in war, government, power politics and all the other fun things that the ruling classes do.
The books are hilarious on one level - lots of funny footnotes and Bartimaeus has a great sense of humour too. But then Nathaniel is flawed and proud and nasty and vulnerable and very real, and I cried rather a lot at the end.
