What's Bred in the Bone is the second novel in the Cornish trilogy. The first novel The Rebel Angels (1981) concerns the disposal of Francis Cornish's estate.

Simon Darcourt and Arthur and Maria Cornish are prominent characters in that novel, Arthur and Maria marrying at the end of the novel. The Lyre of Orpheus (1988) concerns the completion and production of an opera by E. T. A. Hoffmann that is funded by the Cornish Foundation.