I was reading a book on the above and it said that that when useing 3 flies he put a size 16 on the point, a size 14 on the middle dropper and a size 12 on the top dropper having never used more than 2 flies at any one time i am not an authority on this but i was always led to believe it was the other way round, biggest hook on the point and smallest on the top dropper, or have i got it wrong??

I agree. You get better turnover with a heavier fly on the point and smaller lighter flys on the droppers.

It is normal of course to put the heaviest fly on the point and to go down in degrees of weight towards the fly line. This of course helps the leader turn over nicely at the end of the cast.

However there are times when I might want to put a large dry fly on the top dropper and hang a couple of small nymphs below it, using the big dry as a "bung".

An experienced caster can easily make the leader straighten out at the end of the cast, even when the leader is a bit out of balance.

No you are dead right, nothing is written in stone but as a general rule if you are using different size/weight hooks/flies you would fish the heavier on the tail of a three fly cast.

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i sometimes put the heavier fly on the top dropper if i don't want it to sink too quickly or to pull the other flies down. But i'm a retard.