Select subselect syntax

[Andy Taylor]

I want to do a select max(maxid) from the following select statement, as one expression;

select max(id) as maxid from table1 UNION select max(id) as maxid from table2 UNION select max(id) as maxid from table3;

the following expression is wrong but conveys what I am trying to do:

select max(maxid) from (select max(id) as maxid from table1 UNION select max(id) as maxid from table2 UNION select max(id) as maxid from table3);

thanks
andy
PS I a musing microsoft access 97, hopefully your answer will help and i can work out the ms syntax from that